


Reverse Eurydice

by winfrith69



Series: Old gods, New gods [1]
Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Kid Fic, M/M, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 26,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22670236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winfrith69/pseuds/winfrith69
Summary: Quentin is given a second chance by the gods, but to join his friends, they must pass a test, like Orpheus and Eurydice, only in reverse.
Relationships: Fen/Margo Hanson/Josh Hoberman, Kady Orloff-Diaz/Alice Quinn, Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh, William "Penny" Adiyodi/Julia Wicker
Series: Old gods, New gods [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1630882
Comments: 26
Kudos: 60





	1. chap 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all!  
> I'm working on the next chapter of "Live to fight another day", which I hope to publish sometime this week, next week at the latest. Meanwhile, here you have my new work. After seeing many works that revisit the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, I decided to give it a try, with my own spin. And since I started writing this fic, before s5 aired, I'm only including the magic surges and the apocalypse into the story.  
> Here's me, wishing for Quentin's comeback at the end of s5 (with Jason Ralph, I can't think of any other actor to play him), so that we can finally get the resolution to the Queliot storyline.  
> Hope you like this new fic and as always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated.  
> Enjoy!

Quentin says goodbye to Penny and crosses the arch. He knows, from what Penny has told him, that he is apparently going to his personal heaven, instead of having to wait in the bowling alleys of the Underworld. He has made his peace and the only thing he truly regretted about dying, is not having been able to say goodbye to Julia and Eliot. However, he is excited to see his father, Arielle and Teddy again, as well as the rest of their family. He hopes that his personal heaven will be a quiet place, very much like the mosaic, where he will finally rest, until his other friends come too. 

He walks through what seems a dark corridor, with a faint light signaling the end of it. He gets to the end and goes into the light. He expects to appear in a fillorian forest, with a path that leads to the cottage. Instead, he finds himself on an office floor. He is puzzled, maybe he must go through some other bureaucratic shit before he can definitively cross over. Penny could have warned him about it! But, maybe, it is above Penny’s paygrade, so it could be Penny doesn’t even know about this part of the process. Still, he wants to get over that and finally cross over. He speeds up his pace. He passes along several offices, but they are all closed. The corridor ends, stopping in front of an almost closed door. Quentin, not knowing what to expect, goes into the room. 

It’s a conference room, with a big oval table, several chairs, a whiteboard and a little table with a pitcher of water, some glassed and a bowl of fruit. Quentin chuckles at the strangeness of seeing something so mundane as a conference room in the Underworld. And sitting on some of the chairs, he sees his father, Arielle, and Teddy, who looks just like he had, when he had left home. He exclaims:  
“Dad!” And he rushes to hug his family. His dad is first. As he hugs him, Quentin apologizes: “Dad, I’m sorry, so sorry I wasn’t there when you passed away! And I’m sorry for being selfish and putting magic before anything else, you died because I brought back magic!” He says, tearing up. 

His dad hugs him hard and says: “It’s ok, Curly Q. Just as I knew something had happened with magic when I started to get in remission, I had accepted that magic coming back meant cancer would return. I had already made my peace when I was first diagnosed, so those months in remission were just a temporary reprieve. And I knew something bad had happened when you didn’t come back, after your last visit. But, son, I didn’t expect to see you so soon. What happened?” Ted Coldwater asks, fearing the answer.

“Dad, I … I sacrificed myself, to save my friends, especially Julia and Eliot” Quentin answers. Father and son stop hugging and lean on the table for support. 

“Oh, Quentin, please, tell me you didn’t ….” Says Ted. 

“I’m sorry dad, I didn’t know what else to do, it was the only way of saving them, the world and I was so tired, so sad, I just wanted everything to end” Quentin explains, looking sad and dejected, for fear of having disappointed his father. 

“Q, I’m sorry you had to go through that. But weren’t you with your friends? Julia was there, right? And your friends from school?” Ted asks

“Yes, but we had so many things going on, we were hiding and dealing with a monster at the same time. Plus, our own personal problems. I couldn’t burden them with mine too. I thought that when everything got calmer, I would resume therapy. I never got to do it” Quentin tries to explain the pressure they had all been under. His father shakes his head and sits down in one of the chairs. 

Arielle and Teddy, who have been waiting for Quentin to finish talking to his dad, then hug him. Quentin kisses both and the three of them sit down in chairs next to Quentin’s dad, holding hands. He tells them everything that has happened: solving the mosaic and going back to their time. He tells them about the quest, the abyss, Blackspire, the deal with Ora, Alice betraying them, the Library taking control of magic, the faeries, the monster, the monster possessing Eliot … He tells them about everything that has happened since they’d gone back to their time. Arielle asks:

“Quentin, what happened to Eliot? Is he …” She asks, dreading Quentin’s answer. Teddy is expectant too: “Yeah, dad, what happened to pops?” 

“He is alive. He was badly injured, but with magic coming back, I’m sure he’ll be on his feet quite quickly” Q answers like it’s nothing. Arielle doesn’t believe him for a second.  
“Quentin, did something happen between you and El? Did you have a fight?” She questions Q. 

“Actually, El and I haven’t been together, since we came back from solving the mosaic” Quentin answers shortly. He doesn’t want to talk about that, but Ari and Teddy want and need to know. 

“What happened, dad? Why aren’t pops and you together?” Teddy asks. When he’d last seen his parents, Q and Eliot had been stupidly in love with each other. 

“After we solved the mosaic and we went back to our time, because of the time key, we thought that our lifetime in the mosaic had been erased. Sorry, about that, by the way. However, in Whitespire, we saw the gift I had prepared for Margo, with a letter, telling her about our life at the mosaic. We then remembered everything. I asked Eliot to give our relationship a chance in the real world. I told him that we had proof it had worked, so why not give it a try?” Quentin explains. “He told me no, he implied our relationship had been one of necessity, and that given a choice we would not choose the other” Quentin finishes. Both Ari and Teddy are looking at him with, slack-jawed. They can’t believe Eliot had said that! They both look at Quentin, who is staring at the floor, with a sad look on his face.  
Arielle tenderly caresses Quentin’s cheek: “Oh, Quentin. You’ve been through so much. And Eliot being possessed, I’m sure it hasn’t been easy. If he were here, I would bash his head with my bucket, for being so stupid! Trying to kill a monster and then being possessed by it! Ugh!” Quentin laughs at that. Arielle had been very feisty, and she hadn’t been afraid to call both on their shit when Eliot and he were being stupid. He had missed them so much … and he misses Eliot, and his friends, but mostly Eliot. He’d barely had any time to be with him after they freed Eliot from the monster. Someone hugs him tight and he goes back to paying attention to Ari, the one hugging him and still speaking: 

“But Quentin, are you sure Eliot doesn’t love you?”

“I have absolutely no idea. He tells me he doesn’t want to be with me, yet he hugs me like we were still at the mosaic. He tells me to go be life partners with someone else but is mad that I made a bargain with Ora and tries to kill the monster. And when he managed to get through his possession, to tell us that he was alive, he used the same phrases I’d used in the throne room, when I asked him to give our relationship a try. He was hot and cold at the same time, Ari, it was so frustrating! And I guess I was afraid to try again. That I would tell him how I felt, and he would not feel the same, that it would ruin our friendship and I’d lose him as a friend. I didn’t want that.” Quentin admits. 

“Oh, Quentin” Ari sighs, caressing Quentin’s cheek. “I’m so sorry. I was sure that Eliot and you would be together, even when you went back to your time. He loves you, so much! It was difficult to compete with that when we lived together”

“If he loves me, he has a weird way of showing it” Quentin responds, angrily. 

“Quentin, you know better than anyone, that Eliot hides all his insecurities and fears, under that bravado. It’s easier for him to pretend he doesn’t care. Do you remember when Teddy was born?” Quentin nods. “He was so afraid of holding him, afraid that he’d drop Teddy and we’d be mad at him. It took us quite a while, to get him, to hold Teddy. But then, when Teddy was upset, like when he had a colic’s, he was the only one who could calm him”

“Yeah, it was like he had a magic touch” They remember fondly. Quentin continues speaking. “Ari, I know, ok. I know that Eliot pretends not to care, so he won’t be as hurt by others. But I was afraid too. You don’t know how many times I feared he’d get sick of me and would break up with me. You know, when he said that thing about choices, he was referring to me, that I would choose a girl instead of him. The truth is, he never gave me a choice. He pushed me towards you, remember?” Ari nods. She remembers Eliot’s not so subtle attempts of leaving Quentin and her alone. “And I’ve always thought he’d be the one who wouldn’t choose me. I mean, why would he? He is so cool. He is talented, kind, brave, charismatic … How can I compare to him? Me, a depressed nerd who uses fantasy as an escape mechanism” Quentin finishes, while he wipes the tears that have started to fall. 

Ari hugs him again and kisses him. Holding Q’s face in her hands, she tells him: “Quentin, you are so much more than a, what do you call it? A nerd. You are brave, smart, so kind and gentle, you love with all your heart. How could anyone not choose you? Look, what you and I shared, it was great, it was magic. I’ve never felt so loved in my life. But what you and Eliot share is the type of love stories are written about. You will find your way back to him, and when you do, be sure to smack him on the head, for me” Quentin laughs at that last sentence.

“But Ari, how can I get back to Eliot if I’m dead? I mean, I’m … Well, honestly, I have no fucking idea of where I am. I was supposed to move on, go to the afterlife. My story, as Penny said, it’s over” Quentin says. 

Ari caresses his face and with an enigmatic smile says: “Quentin, love, you will find out soon enough. Let’s join your father and our son” She pulls him by the hand and they both go to the side of the room, where Ted and Teddy are sitting down. 

“Nice talk, dad?” Teddy asks. Ted laughs. When Quentin gives him a questioning look, Ted answers “I’d never thought I’d see the day when someone would call you dad. I’m proud of you son, Teddy is a great man. You raised him well”

Quentin hugs his dad. “Thanks, dad. But it wasn’t just me, Eliot helped” 

“Ahh, yes, The famous Eliot. He is one of your friends from that school, right? Well, I’d love to have met him, and to give him the dad talk, about not hurting my boy” Ted says jokingly. 

Quentin goes beet red “Dad!” Ted, Teddy and Ari laugh. Quentin is still easily embarrassed!

“Ok, let's change the subject. Do you know why we are here? And where are we by the way?” Quentin asks. 

“Well, son. I wish we could tell you that, but they made us promise. They will explain everything. In fact, they should be here, any minute now” Ted answers. 

Quentin sighs, getting a little frustrated. Who are they? What do they want? And whoever they are, why can’t they let him rest in peace? Hasn’t he done enough? He starts pacing, while Ari, Ted, and Teddy remain seated. 

“I believe Mr. Coldwater, that your family is referring to us” Quentin jumps a bit when he hears that voice. He turns around and sees three men, sitting at the opposite end of the table. They are surrounded by more people, who are sitting in chairs, behind the three men. The three men have an air of authority and it’s clear that they are the leaders of the others. They are in their 40s or 50s and very good looking. The man sitting in the middle is an African American man. He is wearing a grey suit, that reminds Q, of the suits they wear at the Library. The man sitting on his right is red-haired and has long hair and a beard. He is dressed in sports clothes. The man on the left is blonde. He also has a beard, it’s well-kept and longish hair, tied in a ponytail. He’s wearing casual clothes, a t-shirt, and jeans, but he looks like he is the one mostly in charge. The African American man continues speaking: 

“Please sit, Mr. Coldwater. There is much we have to talk about and not that much time to do so”

Quentin sits, grabbing Ari’s and Teddy’s hands. The man continues: 

“Welcome to the Old God’s offices. I’m Hades and these are my brothers” He gestures to the right “This is Poseidon, God of the sea” and to the left “This is Zeus, father of the Gods and our leader. However, since you’re currently under my domain, Zeus has agreed that I should explain why you are here” Hades explains. 

Quentin starts getting nervous. It seems like the whole Greek pantheon of Gods is there, which doesn’t bode well for him. Not after having helped the monster kill a few Gods, even if it had been unwillingly. Hades carries on: “Because of your actions, the twin monster-gods were freed from their prisons, several gods were killed, including my beloved Persephone and you almost provoked the end of the world” Hades stops, looking severe. 

Quentin starts getting a cold sweat. Hearing Hades, all the Gods looking at him, with severe gazes… He feels like he is in a hearing, the Gods are the judges and jury and they are going to sentence him to the Tartarus, or Hell, or something equally horrible, for all his apparent misdeeds. He shivers, wanting it to be over. He guesses that having his family here is a small consolation, a chance to say goodbye before he is thrown to the pits of hell. Or maybe it is a sadistic punishment of the Gods, bringing your loved ones, knowing you’ll never see them again. Fuck, he is supposed to go to his personal heaven, Penny has told him so!

Then, Hades continues speaking “It would be very easy to blame your friends and you for everything that has happened. However, we created the monster twins, and when they proved too powerful for us to handle, we imprisoned them in Castle Blackspire. We also allowed for the sister to be kidnapped and sacrificed by those 4 librarians who became gods themselves. Therefore, we cannot hold you fully responsible for the chaos the monsters provoked” Hades pauses again. 

Quentin and his family, who have been holding their breaths and gripping their hands, let collective sighs of relief. If the Gods are to blame too, that means they don’t intend to punish Quentin, or so they hope. They look at Hades expectantly, wanting him to tell them whatever they’ve decided for Q. But Hades remains silent until a younger God speaks: 

“Come on uncle! Don’t leave the poor mortals hanging! I know you like your theatrics, but most of us have got better things to do, than to be here, intimidating a poor schmuck, who’s just died. Tell him what we want him to do and be done with it! I want to return to Naxos, to my beloved Ariadne” The younger god exclaims. 

Quentin stares at the god who has spoken. Ariadne? Naxos? Isn’t Naxos the island where Dionysius lived? His knowledge of Greek myths is rusty, but Quentin also remembers reading about Theseus leaving Ariadne, at the island of Naxos. He stares at the God. If he is Dionysius, then what about Bacchus? Aren’t they supposed to be the same God, only with different names? The god, sensing Q’s confusion laughs

“Oh Mr. Coldwater, can I call you Quentin?” Quentin nods. Dionysius reminds him of Bacchus, with that laid-back attitude. Dionysius laughs again “Wouldn’t it be more appropriate that he reminded you of me? After all, he took on my mantle, when I decided to leave my partying ways. The only condition was that he couldn’t use my name, that’s how Bacchus became the god of wine, partying fertility and more. But I’m the original one.” He winks at Quentin. “Now that we’ve cleared things, uncle, for the love of us! Will you explain this poor boy, what we need of him?” Dionysius asks Hades again while gesturing at Q and Hades. 

“Fine, fine. The impatience of youth. Now, Mr. Coldwater, the reason why we’ve pulled you from your rest is that we wish to offer you a reward. Not just you, your friends too. With the passing of the centuries and humans no longer worshiping us as they used to, we’ve become complacent, more preoccupied with our little worlds and neglectful, no longer paying attention to what happens to our creations. This has allowed the events that have led to your death. As a compensation, we’d like you and your friends to become the new gods of Earth and Fillory, since they are short of a few” Hades goes silent again, letting Quentin absorb what he is saying. 

Quentin narrows his eyes. The gifts of the gods are never what they seem and there is always a catch. They are a curse and a blessing, and he isn’t sure whether to believe them or not. Another god lets a booming laugh. He is standing behind Zeus. He is tall and broad, red-haired and he’s wearing a t-shirt that says, “War is glorious”. Must be Ares, Quentin muses. “He’s a smart, that one! Uncle, tell him everything, he’s not going to accept otherwise. Quentin, you’re right not to trust us, we recognize we’ve been downright bastards in the past, always wanting to screw up people, even our favored ones” Ares says. 

Poseidon and Zeus turn to whisper something in Hades’ ear. Hades nods and then Zeus addresses Quentin. “Mr. Coldwater, I know our past actions may lead you to mistrust us, and you’re not without reason. We’ve been petty, vengeful and offered poisoned gifts, just to seen how much you struggle with them. But this time, our offer is sincere. No drawbacks, no hidden clauses. We believe that you and your friends will be better gods than we’ve been. You’ve proven to be a formidable team, capable of overcoming betrayals and grudges, coming together even when everything seems lost.” Zeus stops for a moment. Quentin thinks about the quest for the keys, fighting the beast, the monsters … Even after Alice betrayed them, she came back to help. They’ve always worked better together, that is true. Zeus isn’t finished though: “Before we’ve often had petty squabbles amongst ourselves, we’ve tried to undo what one of us has done. We think that you’ll help each other carry out your godly tasks, even if each of you has a specific godhood” Zeus goes silent, staring at Quentin, straight in the eye. Quentin is shocked. He doesn’t know what to say. He has so many questions, but he thinks the gods won’t take lightly to them. He opens his mouth but closes it immediately. Hades says: 

“If you have questions, you’d better ask them now. We might not answer all of them, but you can try” 

Quentin takes a deep breath. He looks at his family, who is smiling at him. Arielle nods and squeezes his hand. He squeezes it back, kisses it and turns to stare at the Gods. “Ok, say I accept the offer. Why now, when I’ve died and not before? My friend Julia became a goddess and lost her powers. Why not approach her? Why me?” Quentin asks. 

The gods look at each other. They seem to have a secret conversation. Quentin hopes he hasn’t angered them. He’s still very much a mortal man, even if he’s dead. They can still send his soul to whatever version of hell they have. But he won’t be intimidated by them. If they want him to become a god, they’ve better tell him why. Zeus clears his throat and starts speaking again. “Well Mr. Coldwater, we’ve chosen to approach you, because you’re the one who’s lost the most. You shouldn’t have died at the seam and we want to correct that mistake. About your friend Julia, she barely had the time to explore her powers as a goddess and we haven’t approached her, because we believe she won’t trust us, not after what happened to you” Quentin cheers Julia internally. 

Zeus carries on “And the reason why we’ve approached you now is that the world is once more, at the brink of destruction. When you cast your mending spell at the Seam and caused Everett to explode, the magic he was hoarding, after having drunk from the magical reservoir in Fillory, was released to the world, without control. This excess is causing surges, which depending on the strength, have caused spells to misfire or people to die or become niffins. These surges are becoming stronger and more frequent. If they continue, growing stronger each time, they will cause such an explosion that it will destroy the earth” 

Quentin thinks, there you go. That’s the drawback of the god’s gift. Stopping the Apocalypse. He suddenly becomes tired. He’s always wanted to be the hero of an epic story all his life, but after been involved in one, being a hero is not as glamorous as it seems to be. He asks the gods “Why can’t you stop the apocalypse? You are gods, you are all-powerful. What makes you think that my friends and I will do a better job?” He’s a little scared that he might have overstepped, but he’s done with being forced into magical quests. 

“Ohh, I like him! He’s got spunk, even if he looks like he’s going to faint!” Ares says. “We are powerful, yes, but not enough. Most humans no longer believe in us, they don’t worship us as they used to, or need us. The only humans who know about us are magicians, and even they tend to avoid us, for fear of what we might do. It’s our own fault really” Ares explains. Quentin nods, but that doesn’t explain why they want him and his friends to become gods. 

A goddess sitting next to Ares, speaks next: “Apart from losing our worshipers, our lack of interest in human problems and our own fights have made us lose some of our powers. As my father has explained, your friends and you have developed a bond that we’ve never had, even if most of us are related. You’ve chosen yourselves as companions and you have combined your talents to fight evil and save the world. As gods, you’ll do the same, you won’t abandon each other. Even your friend Julia, when she first became a goddess, chose to help you when you needed her” she states. She is tall and athletic, with long brown hair and a bookish air, that reminds Q of Alice. She must be Athena, goddess of knowledge and war. 

Hades speaks again “We’ll give you some time to decide. Should you not accept our proposal, you will be sent to your resting place with your family and we’ll leave you be” he waves his hand and a small bell appears on the table, next to Quentin. “When you’ve made your choice, ring the bell” And the gods disappear from the room, leaving Q with his family. He turns to them. “What should I do?” He asks them. His dad, Teddy, and Ari look at him with sad eyes, knowing what his decision is. 

“Well son, if the world is ending, you’d never leave your friends to fight alone, not if there is something you can do,” Ted says, squeezing Q’s shoulder.

“But I’m tired dad, I died, I saved the world. Haven’t I earned the right to rest?” Q protests faintly. He knows what his choice is going to be, but he needs his family to tell him. 

Ari caresses his cheek tenderly. “Quentin, you’d never forgive yourself if something happened to them, not if you could prevent it. And you’ll be able to see them again” 

“Dad, you never gave up on the mosaic, or on saving pops, or on saving magic. Are you going to give up on Aunt Julia, and Margo, and Alice, Josh, Kady, even Penny? Are you going to give up on papa?” Teddy asks, with big puppy eyes, just like the ones he would use when he wanted something. 

Quentin laughs and looks at his family again. They are looking at him, with earnest eyes. “I never had a choice, uh?”

“No, Curly Q. The moment the gods told you about giving you a second chance, your mind was made up. You just needed confirmation. We support you, 100 %, no matter what you decide” Ted says, hugging Q hard. Quentin tears up, hugs his dad back and squares his shoulders. “Ok, I’m doing it. Ring the goddamn bell” His family laughs, his dad mock scolding him for using swear words in front of his grandson. Ari takes his hand again, while Teddy rings the bell. 

The gods appear, just as they were. “Have you made your decision?” Hades asks. 

“Yes, I’m accepting your offer,” Quentin says. 

“Good. Before you leave, there are some things we need to go over” Hades says. Quentin nods. Hades continues speaking “First, there is the matter of your godhood” A white box appears on the table. It’s a jewelry box, white with gold filigrees, with a design of vines. A faint glow comes from the box and Q can feel the power it has. Zeus opens the lid. Inside, there are 10 spheres, each a different color and all of them glow. “These spheres represent different godhood’s. There is one for each of your friends. Quentin Coldwater, please come forward” Zeus motions Q to approach them. 

A goddess takes the silvery sphere. The goddess is tall and svelte. She has translucent skin, which makes her look like an elf. Her hair is midnight black, like her eyes, which give her an air of mystery. When she speaks, it seems that three voices overlap, though the effect is not unpleasant “Quentin Coldwater, I Hecate Witch Goddess, goddess of magic and witchcraft, give you the godhood of magic” She lifts the sphere and guides it towards Q. The sphere gets in him and Quentin feels the rush of power inside. He glows with a silvery light for a second. He stares at the goddess with wide eyes. She smiles and touches his heart. “You are the god of magic” Sensing Q’s why she continues explaining “How could I not choose you as the god of magic? You’ve lost so much because of it, you’ve seen the worst magic can bring and yet, you’ve always believed in it, that it can be used for good instead of for personal gain” Quentin’s eyes well up. He looks at Hecate, who is smiling at him. 

“Tha … thank you” He stutters. Before he can say anything, Zeus speaks again “Because of the nature of your return, we decided you should not return alone, you will be accompanied by a member of your family. We asked them and they’ve decided who should be the one to go with you” Zeus says. 

Quentin turns his head so fast; he almost gets whiplash. “What? Who? Why” Quentin can’t get the words out. His dad, Ari, and Teddy come where he is standing.

Ted grabs him from the shoulder and says “Teddy is going back with you. When you passed to the Underworld, Hades came for us and explained everything. He said one of us would be able to go with you and we had a talk about who should it be” Ted explains. 

Quentin is conflicted. He’s happy he’s not going alone, but at the same time … “Dad, Ari, why? Why Teddy and not you?” He asks tearing up. 

Ted squeezes his shoulder again “Son, I’ve already lived a full life and I have no regrets. I always worried that you wouldn’t have the chance of having what I had, a family, a full life, but the truth is you did. You were a good husband and an excellent dad, from what Teddy says” Ted laughs and Teddy blushes. “I’ve seen the man you’ve become and I’m so proud of you” Both Ted and Quentin tear up. “I don’t need another life to know that you’ll be a good god, I already know” Quentin hugs his dad, hard. They let go and Q turns to Arielle, who kisses him and grabs his hands. 

“Quentin, I love you, I’ll always love you. You changed my life. I was a farmer’s daughter in Fillory and I thought I had no other choices but to marry a boy from the village and carry on with the family business. But you and Eliot appeared, and you brought magic to my life, and love, and adventures, and most importantly, Teddy. When I got sick and we knew it was a matter of time before I died, I knew that I could die in peace, because I had been loved by tow amazing men and I knew that you’d be excellent parents for Teddy. I have no regrets. Quentin, our marriage, our life, it was the stuff of stories, as you used to say. But what you and Eliot have, is epic. And you deserve to live it again, even if you must bash his stupid head, so he understands!” Quentin laughs and Ari tenderly kisses him again.  
Quentin then turns to his son. “What about you?” 

Ted shrugs his shoulders and says “I’ve always wanted to go on a real adventure with you and papa, and meet Aunt Julia, Aunt Margo, Alice, Kady, Josh, Fen, even Penny. And I’ve always wanted to go to earth, see where you and papa grew up, Brakebills, New York, all the places you told me about. I’m ready dad and I know what I’m getting into” When he gets determined like that, Teddy reminds Q of Julia, or Margo, which makes him chuckle. Quentin nods and claps his shoulder as his dad does. “Ok, kiddo. Let's do this” 

“There’s just one tiny thing” Teddy starts saying. Quentin rolls his eyes. This is it, the catch the gods have been hiding. He braces himself, to hear what crazy condition the gods have come up with. Almost like reading his mind, Teddy says “Dad, calm down. It’s not a catch, I decided to do this. When I go with you, I won’t go as I am now. I’ll go as a 6-year-old kid”

“What?” Quentin shouts. “No, no way. I won’t have it. Why would you decide such a thing? Did they trick you into it?” He asks angrily. “Did you know about this?” He asks his dad and Ari. Before Teddy can answer, Zeus, speaks again: 

“Mr. Coldwater, we have not tricked your son, nor coerced him into taking that decision. He’s the one who suggested it” Zeus says angrily, a bolt of lightning cracking down inside the conference room. Quentin lifts his hands, in a placating gesture and asks Teddy: “Are you sure? Are you sure you want to spend the rest of your life as a kid? Not growing up? I know you want to see papa again and meet the others, but it’s too big of a sacrifice. Teddy, tell me, are you really sure” 

“Dad, relax. I’m sure. It will be easier for us if I’m younger. It would be strange for me to go looking like I do now and call you dad. We’d have to say we’re brothers or cousins or something like that” Teddy says. He looks sure of himself, determined. He’s made up his mind and Quentin knows that nothing he says is going to change Teddy’s mind. 

“Will he be able to grow up, as a normal child?” Q asks the gods. 

Athena nods “He will grow just like a normal child. The myths have often told you otherwise, but most of my brothers and sisters grew up as regular children. He will not be stuck as a 6-year-old child”  
Quentin accepts the answer, not entirely happy about it. However, there is a part of him that is giddy at the prospect of raising Teddy again, on Earth, with Julia and Eliot and Margo, and the rest. Showing him all the things, he and Eliot would tell Teddy about, disguising them as fairytales. 

Ares interrupts Quentin’s musings “Can we continue with the ceremony? We are on a time crunch here”. Quentin and Teddy nod. Zeus says: 

“Theodore Rupert Coldwater-Waugh, please come forward” Teddy approaches Zeus, Ari, and Ted following him, a few steps back. A garnet sphere floats out of the box. Another Goddess approached Teddy, the sphere floating on her hand. “I, Artemis, goddess of the moon and the hunt, give you the godhood of wildlife. You are the god of all creatures, big and small, wild and domestic, magical and normal” She pushes the sphere towards Teddy, who feels the same rush of power Q has felt and glows too, with a reddish light. 

Q hugs Teddy, recognizing the power inside him. He’ll be able to sense Teddy, through his powers, as will Teddy. He grabs his son’s hand, and both face the Gods. “Ok, what now?” Quentin asks them.  
“Now you and your son will return to Earth and find your friends. When you’ve reunited, you’ll be able to give then the godhood’s.” Hades says. 

“Just like that? It can’t be that simple. What godhood’s are there? And how will I know which godhood belongs with whom?” Quentin asks, narrowing his eyes. 

“You’re right again, Mr. Coldwater. First the easy questions. The godhood chooses the person. Therefore, when the moment comes, each sphere will glow and float in front of the person it deems worthy. There are different godhoods: healing, war, knowledge, nature, love, crafts, traveling and sea” Poseidon explains. 

“It’s not that simple. Your friends will pass a test. Not to determine they’re worthy, we’ve already chosen them. The test they must pass is regarding you” Hades clarifies.  
There it is. This time, for sure. The catch of the god’s gift. Quentin pinches his brow, waiting, this time for real, for whatever crazy condition the gods have concocted. “Ok, let’s get over with it” He says, resignedly. 

“I’m sure that you’re familiar with the story of Orpheus and Eurydice” Hades starts explaining. Q nods, everyone knows about that, the star-crossed lovers … Hades carries on “What people don’t know is that my wife and I, feeling sorry for them, we decided to give them another chance. This time, we would let Eurydice out of the Underworld, but we’d put a charm over her, to make her look like a different person. If Orpheus was able to see through the charm, Eurydice would recover her appearance and she would be allowed to stay” Hades stops for a second “the problem is that by the time we got around to do that, Orpheus had already been killed. They finally reunited in the Underworld” Hades finishes. 

“What you mean is … Teddy and I will look different when we return. And my friends must overcome that. How?” Quentin asks. 

“It will be different for each person. It can be something you say, something you do, how you act. There will be a moment that will allow them to see through the glamour. If they believe, the glamour will be broken for them. They will see you, the real you” Hades tells Quentin.

“What if they don’t? What if they are unable to see past the charm?” Quentin wonders. 

“You need to have faith in your friends, Mr. Coldwater,” Hades says. “And we have a failsafe. If one of your friends seems resistant, there is a spell that you’ll be able to cast, to break the charm. But it’s to be used as a last resort”

“Ok. And the magical surges, if I’m the god of magic, won’t I be able to stop them?” Quentin asks. He has many questions and the god’s patience seems to be thinning. But he needs to get as much information as he can. 

Hecate answers “You’re not powerful enough. You’ll be able to detect them and protect the people, but you won’t be able to stop them, not yet. The excess Ambien magic and the surges are not just because Everett exploded. The flow of magic is not supposed to be controlled. It can be stopped, but it should never be hoarded. When the librarians attempted to control the flow, they disrupted the balance. Now, the system is trying to right itself. Since there’s too much magic, the world can’t contain it, that’s why it’s in danger” Hecate exposes. 

That explains things. Quentin would like to say that the Gods allowed the Library to take control of magic, but he’s already pissed them off and he doesn’t want to have them on his bad side when he gets back. Hades and Zeus look impatiently at him. “Do you have any more questions?”

Quentin shakes his head, then he realizes: the box has ten sloths for the spheres. Two have already been taken, Teddy’s and his. He makes a headcount of his friends. Then it comes to him. Penny, the original Penny, who’s now working for the Library of the Underworld. 

“Yes, I have one. What about Penny?” Quentin asks. 

“William Adiyodi from timeline 23, as part of your group, he gets to be a god, just like your other friends” Zeus answers, with an exasperated sigh. 

“I’m not talking about that Penny. I’m talking about the Penny from my timeline, the one who works for the library, in the Underworld” Quentin addresses Hades directly. 

“Unfortunately, your friend signed a magically binding contract. We can’t go against it, not even us, the Gods. The Library is an entity on its own, we have little control over it” Hades tells Quentin. “We can’t stall any longer. Your son and you must return to earth. You may say your goodbyes now” 

Quentin and Teddy nod. They approach Ted and Ari. Quentin takes Ari in his arms and kisses her. They hug, while Ari whispers that she loves him. Before they let go, she grabs his face and tells him “Give Eliot a big kiss from me, ok”. Quentin nods and moves to say goodbye to his dad. 

“Dad …” He tears up. Ted hugs him and pats him on the shoulder. “It will be fine, son. You go back, save the world and be the best God earth has ever had. And take care of that boy of yours, and Teddy. Oh, and if you can ever travel here, bring your young man, I would like to meet him” Ted says. Quentin lets out a half sob, half laugh and hugs his dad again. “Will do, dad. I love you”  
Meanwhile, Ari and Teddy have been hugging. Before Teddy lets go and joins Quentin, Ari whispers something in Teddy's ear, which makes him laugh. Teddy joins Q. “What was that about? What did mum tell you?” Quentin asks.

“Uh, nothing special. Something mum wants me to give a message to papa” Teddy winks at Q. They join the gods.

“Before you go back, you need new names,” Hades says. 

Quentin and Teddy look at each other. Teddy says, “Your call, dad”. Quentin thinks for a few moments. Their temporary new names can’t have anything to do with Fillory. He can’t use Bryan either and there are some names he just doesn’t want to, as they bring bad memories. Then it dawns on him. Luke, for Teddy, like Luke Skywalker, one of his favorite heroes. For him, Will Spencer, a combination of two beloved characters, like Will Graham, from the Hannibal tv show and Spencer Reid, from Criminal Minds. He’s always felt a connection to these characters, as they both have some sort of disorder that affects their lives and they are loners, often misunderstood.

Zeus asks, “Have you chosen your names?” Quentin tells the names he’s chosen. Teddy says he likes it. “Are you ready then?” Zeus asks again. They both say yes. They have a last family hug with Ted and Ari, and they approach the gods. Hades points to a door in the conference room “As soon as you go through that door, you’ll appear on earth, in Brakebills. You’ll know where to go from there. Good luck” 

Quentin grabs Teddy’s hand and they go through the door. There is a blinding white light and when it fades, they are in the lawn of Brakebills, Teddy having gone to being 6 years old again.  
Quentin crouches, so he’s at his son’s level “Welcome to Earth, kiddo”. Teddy looks around amazed. They hug and Quentin hoist Teddy up, to carry him and says “Let's go find our friends”.


	2. chap 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julia and Eliot go to Brakebills, they have a chat with Fogg and meet two new people

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all!  
> the second chapter and we see what the gang's been up to. This fic is going to be shorter, my idea is for each chapter to have the moment when each character discovers Will is Q. I'm still working on the next chapter of "live to fight another day", I hope to publish it sometime next week, but I'm not making any promises. I'd like at least to update chapters on a semi-regular basis, but you know, life gets in the way.   
> So about S5, I'm not disliking it, but I feel there's something missing, apart from the obvious. Plus it feels a bit like there're two seasons in one, with the apocalypse thing and now the dark king's storyline, I guess. I don't know, thoughts on that?   
> Anyway, here's me rambling. Enjoy the chapter, as always, thanks for all the comments and kudos, and let's wish for Q's comeback at the end of s5, even if the chances are pretty small.   
> Enjoy!

In an apartment in Manhattan, the people who live in it are getting ready for the day. Slowly, they each get down to the kitchen, where they meet for breakfast. It’s something they’ve started doing after the events, six months ago. Before each one goes doing their own thing, they eat a meal together and check what they are going to do, so everyone keeps track of the others. It’s a way of protecting each other. Even if they are no longer in danger from the Library and they have Fogg’s protection, there are still dangers to face and enemies to fight, not to mention, the magic surges and the oncoming apocalypse.   
Julia is the first to come down. Before she gets to the kitchen, she passes his room. No one has used that room, it’s like they’ve all decided the room is going to remain empty. The door is ajar. She looks inside and sees that Eliot is there, lying in Q’s bed. He’s holding one of Q’s hoodies, like a security blanket. She looks around the room. It’s like Q left it. His books are there, his clothes … They haven’t had the heart to box the things. She gets a pang and tears well up. She shakes her head and rubs her eyes. She can’t allow herself to fall into grief, not when there is so much at stake. But she misses Q so much, sometimes she feels like she’s going to drown in sadness. And if she feels like that, she can’t imagine what Eliot is going through. But she needs to be strong if she’s going to carry out all the projects she’s working on.   
This morning, she has to go to Brakebills, Fogg has requested a meeting with her. She sets the coffee maker and puts the kettle on, some like tea, the heathens. She gets some fruit, cereals, and milk and takes out the plates, cutlery, and cups for the others. She’s not cooking. She leaves that for Josh when he’s here. She starts eating her breakfast, as the others start coming down.   
Alice and Kady are the second to come down, holding hands. Julia thinks that’s a new development. When they get to the kitchen, she greets them:   
“Nice night?” Alice blushes and lets go of Kady’s hand. Kady laughs and kisses Alice, who blushes even more but laughs shyly too. Alice had been a wreck after Q died, she spent the first months in her room, not wanting to get out or see anyone. But a couple of months ago, Kady went to see her. No one knows what Kady told Alice, but since then, Alice started to join the living. After that, they’ve been spending a lot of time together, working in the Library and with the Hedges. And they’ve both lost a significant one, it’s natural they would comfort each other.  
They get their breakfast; Alice takes the sweetest cereals they have and puts a huge amount of sugar in her bowl of milk. How she doesn’t get any sugar high amazes Julia, but each their own. Alice seems much more centered though, more than Julia or Eliot, even if she was a mess a few months ago.   
Margo is the next one to come down. She’s gone by Q’s room, trying to get Eliot to get up. She’s still banished from Fillory and they are trying to find a way to lift the banishment, so she can go back being High King. Meanwhile, Fen and Josh are there, acting as High King and the main advisor. The situation with the Dark King was resolved quite quickly. It turns out that they’d forgotten about Plover when Q had gone looking for the plant to heal Josh. Plover took advantage of that and found a small puddle that Everett hadn’t been able to drain, from the reservoir. Using that amount, Plover, with the help of Tick Pickwick, overthrew Fen and Josh and advanced the time 300 years. Josh and Fen got Rafe’s help, who took them to the Clock Barrens and with Jane’s help, they were able to return to earth and get in touch with the others. Now that magic was properly working, they were able to outs Plover and restore Fen on the throne, while they look for ways of lifting Margo’s banishment.   
Margo goes back and forth, from Fillory to earth. She is in touch with Josh and Fen every day, and the three of them take most of the decisions concerning Fillory. Even if Plover has been defeated, there’s still a shitload of work to be done, mostly to undo the crazy policies Plover instated. Then, there’s also the problem with Loria, West Loria, and the Floating Islands, who weren’t happy at all, during Plover’s reign.   
Apart from all the shit that’s going on in Fillory, she also must think about Eliot. Ever since he found out about Q, he’s been withdrawn, not wanting to do anything, just lying on Q’s bed, reading his books or holding his clothes. Julia, Alice and she have all tried to get him to do something, not to forget Q, but to stop dwelling on the misery, as they still have many problems. Julia is the only one who can occasionally get him to do something, which Margo is grateful for, but she hates that she isn’t the one Eliot goes to.   
She joins the kitchen island with the others and starts eating breakfast. She asks:   
“What are the plans for today? Anything interesting you’re doing? Mama needs some action” She hates being cooped up in the apartment and she needs to do something, just to get out.   
“I’ve got a meeting with Fogg. He hasn’t told me what it is about, but it might be important” Julia tells her.   
“Ugh, Fogg. No thanks. I’ve seen too much of the old man, I don’t want to see him anymore. Quinn, Glorious Hedge Leader?” She addresses Kady and Alice. “Any librarians needing their asses kicked or hedges set straight?”  
“No, Margo, but thanks. We are still working on how to take the worms out, without taking the magic of people. But you’re welcome to research with us if you want” Alice says.   
“No, thanks. I’d rather shave my armpits with sandpaper and eat broken glass” Margo says.   
Alice makes a grimace and Kady frowns. Before she can say something insulting, Penny 23 travels inside the apartment. He’s gone on a quick errand for Julia. He comes up to Julia, kisses her on the cheek, leaves a brown package on the kitchen island and goes to get a cup of coffee. He greets the others with a nod and sits down. He then asks Julia:   
“Can I know what’s in the package? If you want me to be your errand boy, at least I should know what I’m risking my life for” Ever since he made the decision of making Julia human again, he’s been trying to make amends with her, which often means doing what she wants, no questions asked. He’s never thought he’d be so taken with a girl that he’d do anything for her, but that’s love for you. And it’s paying off, a little bit. Julia is slowly forgiving him and wanting to spend time with him (go on dates and all), but he’s got a lot of groveling to do, at least in her looks. Julia pats his arm and says:   
“It’s nothing for you to worry about. If it was really dangerous, I’d tell you before you went”   
Penny 23 wants to ask more questions, but he’s interrupted by Eliot coming to have breakfast. He looks like he hasn’t been sleeping a lot and his eyes are red-rimmed as if he had been crying. But he’s dressed like he’s always had, like a dandy, with his suits, waistcoats, cravats …. The only change about his clothes is that most of them are in dark colors, blacks, greys, purples, dark blues … Still, it’s an improvement from the past months, when he’s been almost nonresponsive, not even to Margo’s threats. This is actually the first morning that he’s come out of Q’s room on his own volition. Margo wolf whistles approaches Eliot, grabs him by the lapels of his waistcoat and says:   
“Look who has stopped moping like an emo teen and decided to join the land of the living. Please, tell me you’re staying here with me, so we can get shit-faced drunk, and just lounge all day like we used to! Or, so you can help me unfuck Fillory before I decide to go Mad Queen Daenerys/Ice-Queen and freeze their fucking asses off!”   
Eliot narrows his eyes at Margo’s comment, but approaches her and kisses her on the cheek. “Oh, Bambi, as much as I’d like to lounge with you or to see you unleash your majestic powers, I already have a prior commitment” He then moves to kiss Julia on the forehead and grabs a cup of coffee. “Good morning Miss Wicker. Are we ready for our visit at Brakebills?”   
“I was just waiting for you El. Penny has brought what I told you about and we need to check some books at the Library. Oh, and Fogg wants to see me, so we can ask him about the circumstances” Julia tells him.   
The others stare at them. What they don’t know is that Julia and Eliot have been working on a secret project, to try and contact Q in the Underworld, see if he’s there. If they manage to do that, they plan on petitioning to a God, to bring back Q. They know it’s going to be very difficult. The only goddess who might have agreed to answer them is dead and they don’t think Hades will want to talk to the people who provoked his wife’s death. Not to forget that the monsters have killed quite a few of them, so they believe no gods will be amenable to answering their plea anytime soon. But they owe it to Q to try. He’d do the same for them, scratch that, he’s done it for them.   
“What is this thing between you two? You spend some time possessed by twin monsters and you’re attached at the hip now?” Margo asks. She’s a bit jealous of the new closeness Julia and Eliot have, not only because Eliot talks more to Julia than her, but also because things have been rocky between the two of them. It all comes down to a talk they had, after Q’s dead and while Eliot was recovering. The conversation was ugly, full of harsh words, tears, and screams. The conversation has marked a breaking point in their relationship. While they’ve had had disagreements before, like with Mike, they’ve always managed to get back to each other, but this time, it will take some time before their relationship goes back to being what it was. It’s been a slow process, with both tentatively reaching out for the other. They know that at some point, they’ll have to really sit down and talk about everything, but right now, they prefer some sort of unspoken truce.   
“Margo, Eliot is just helping me with a project, nothing more. Once we’re finished, I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to help you unfuck Fillory. Me too by the way” Julia tells Margo. She’s finished with her breakfast and is ready to go. “Eliot, are you ready?”  
Eliot nods, leaving his coffee cup in the sink. He takes a bagel; he’ll eat it when they’re in Brakebills. Before they leave, Alice asks them:   
“What is this project you’re working on? Something we can help you with?” It’s not just Alice who’s curious, the rest are too. Eliot and Julia look at each other. They don’t want to tell them; in case they think it’s a bad idea. Penny 23 would be the one most against it, which is not surprising, considering what happened in his timeline. Alice and Kady, they aren’t so sure about them, but they’d rather not risk it. Eliot and Julia think they’d try to convince them of not going through with the plan. They’ve both had experiences with trying to bring back someone from the death, with different results. Margo, Eliot thinks she would help them, but at the same time, she’d bitch about not Eliot focusing on Fillory enough, which is her priority now.   
“It’s nothing, just something Julia and I are trying to do. We don’t know if it’s going to work. If it works and we need your help, we’ll ask you” Eliot knows that what he’s just said doesn’t clarify much, but it’s all he can say, without telling the others about their little project. Before anyone can say anything, Julia says:   
“El, if we’re going to catch Fogg, we have to go now”  
Alice and Kady also get up, leave their cups and plates in the sink and say:   
“We should go too, Harriet is waiting in her safe house, before we contact Zelda”  
“Fine, leave me here, alone. 23, you’re not going to abandon me, right? You’ll stay with me today?” Margo asks Penny dramatically, holding him, by the scarf he’s wearing.   
Penny 23 removes Margo’s hands from his scarf and with a grin, he says: “Sorry, no. you’re on your own” And he travels out of the room.   
The rest leave too, while Margo stays at the apartment. She huffs in frustration. Being banished is not easy and she feels like she can’t do shit. Even if Fen and she decide what to do in Fillory, she can’t be there to make sure that her orders are being carried out. And while she speaks with Josh and Fen almost every day, she’s a hands-on kind of person, especially when it comes to ruling her lands. And with things being a little rocky between Eliot and her, she feels like she’s lost her footing. In moments like these, she remembers Quentin the most, who’d try to, in his awkward way, encourage her or would help her, with all his knowledge about Fillory. She guesses she could try asking Julia, but they’ve never been that close, not even after becoming friends. She sighs, but she decides she’s not going to stay at home and that she needs some retail therapy. It’d be better if Eliot were with her, but if she goes on her own, she can indulge in some of her most secret guilty pleasures, like fantasy books and plush toys that Fen absolutely adores. Not to mention, a few lingerie matchings sets, for Fen and her. Feeling a little better, she leaves the apartment too.   
In Brakebills, Julia and Eliot go to the cafeteria before meeting Fogg. Eliot eats the bagel he’s brought and grabs a water bottle. He wants a drink, so much it’s almost making him feel itchy, but since he came back from his possession, he’s gone almost cold turkey on alcohol and other substances. He learned that the monster almost killed his body with a drug overdose and that Q had stopped it, almost being killed in the process. After what his friends went through, he owes it to them, to take better care of his body. He occasionally indulges, but not as much as he used to when he was the king of partying. But being in Brakebills again, makes him want to reach for his flask and get as wasted as ever. Fingers snap in front of his face and he focuses on Julia, who’s been calling him for a few seconds:   
“El? Eliot? El, are you all right?”  
“Oh, yes. It’s just this place, the memories and I’m way too sober for a meeting with Fogg” he tells her. Julia gives him a concerned look. “El, you don’t need to stay. Do you want to go back? I’ll talk to Fogg, see what he wants and what he can tell me about the circumstances for the spell”  
“No, it’s fine. Let’s go. We don’t want to keep our esteemed dean waiting” Eliot says, in a sarcastic tone. Julia laughs and they enter the building where the offices are located. They go straight to Fogg’s office. When they arrive there, they see that there’s already someone waiting. Or rather two someones. Sitting in one of the leather chairs that Fogg has outside his office, there is a man, who’s more or less their age. For a second, their hearts skip a beat, the guy has the same haircut Q had when he died. But as they get closer, they see that his hair is darker and curlier. He’s got wider eyebrows and his nose is wider than Q’s. And even if their mouths are similar, the same cupid bow lips, this guy’s are thinner. The clothes though, they are the same style Q had: Henley shirt, jeans, sneakers and a sweater with a hoodie. The guy is not alone. On his lap, there is a boy sitting down, holding a puppy that looks like Gerald, the cancer puppy. But Eliot remembers Q killed Gerald when he tried to do a spell to cure his dad’s cancer. Hum, they must have gotten another mascot then, he thinks. The kid looks like he’s 5 or 6 years old and it’s clear that they are father and son because they look alike.   
Eliot finds himself staring at them. The kid and the guy are both playing with the puppy, big smiles on their faces. They look so happy and he gets a pang when he remembers a timeline that never was, where he witnessed moments like that every day. He shakes his head again, he can’t get distracted by the cute guy and his son, who somehow remind him of Q and Teddy.   
He approaches Todd, who works as Fogg’s assistant. Todd is reading a book and he seems engrossed in it, so much, that he doesn’t hear Eliot and Julia approaching. Eliot knocks on the table, which startles Todd.   
“Oh, hey Eliot! Julia! How are you? Long time no see! I haven’t seen you since you stopped being Kim and Eliot, you, it’s been even longer” Todd says awkwardly, but with a big smile, as always.   
“We’re not here to chat, Todd” Eliot puts emphasis on the “Todd”. “We’re here to see Fogg. Can you tell him we’ve arrived? He’s waiting for us” Eliot cuts to the chase. He knows that if given the chance, Todd will start talking about anything and he’s never had the patience for his chat.   
“Oh, yes. Sorry, I’ll tell him right away!” Todd enters Fogg’s office. “Dean Fogg, Eliot and Julia Wicker are here”.   
“Fine, I’ll be right out” Julia and Eliot hear Fogg’s baritone voice. A few moments pass. “You can go, Todd, I’m sure you’ve got lots of things to study” Fogg dismisses Todd. Todd returns to his desk and starts reading again. Fogg comes out and greets Julia and Eliot.   
“Before we talk about anything, let me introduce you to some people,” Fogg says. “Mr. Spencer, can you come?” Fogg addresses the guy on the chair. The guy sets his son on the floor, grabs one hand, while the kid holds the puppy with the other, and both come to where Fogg, Julia, and Eliot are.   
“This is Will Spencer and his son, Luke. They are new students at Brakebills” Fogg says, surprising Julia and Eliot. “Will, can I call you Will?” Will nods, Eliot can’t think of him as the guy any longer. “Will, these are Eliot Waugh and Julia Wicker. Eliot is a former student and Julia, while she never enrolled, she’s an incredibly talented magician” They shake hands and Will looks down at his son, who’s hiding behind his dad, holding his leg:   
“Hey buddy, aren’t you going to say hello to these nice people? He’s a bit shy” Will/Q, says while encouraging his son.   
Julia crouches down, to be at the kids’ level and introduces herself, smiling: “Hey kid. I’m Julia. You’ve got a pretty puppy there. What’s his name? Can I pet him?”   
Luke/Teddy looks up to his dad and Will/Q nods. Luke/Teddy lets go of his dad’s trousers and holds out the hand not holding the puppy. “Hello, I’m Luke. You’re very pretty. Daddy says we’re going to find a super cool name for the puppy, but you can pet him if you want. Daddy says I can keep him, and he’ll play with me and I’ll teach him tricks … ” Luke/Teddy stops talking. He’s staring at Eliot, with wide eyes. Julia gets up. Will/Q sees that Luke/Teddy is staring at Eliot, but he’s hiding behind his dad’s leg again. “Aren’t you going to say hello to Mr. Eliot?”   
Luke/Teddy looks at him, then at Eliot. He gets closer to Eliot, who starts crouching down, so he’s at the kid’s level. Before he can do that, the kid kicks him in the shin. Not hard, but it’s enough to surprise him. For all his disaffected attitude, he usually gets along with kids, and he’s a bit surprised to provoke such a reaction when he’s never seen the kid or his dad before.   
Julia laughs, while Will/Q exclaims “Luke!”. Will/Q crouches down, sets the puppy on the floor and gently, but sternly scolds his son “Luke, we don’t hit people! So, why don’t you say you’re sorry and meet Mr. Eliot?” Luke/Teddy nods, but gestures for his dad to come closer and whispers something in his ear. Will/Q laughs, hugs his kid and says “No can do, buddy. Say sorry to Mr. Eliot and tell him hello. Then, maybe, I’ll think about it” Will/Q winks at his son, stands up and takes Luke/Teddy’s hand. He encourages Luke/Teddy, who approaches Eliot, looking contrite. Eliot kneels, so he’s more at the kid’s level. He waits until Luke/Teddy gets closer to him, not moving.   
“I’m sorry I hitted you, Mr. Eliot. Daddy says that hitting people is bad. My name is Luke” Luke/Teddy says while holding out his hand. Eliot takes it, seeing how small it looks in his hand. He remembers again, a life that never was, and sweet, tender moments with a boy, the same age as Luke.   
“It’s nice to meet you too, Luke. And your daddy” Eliot wants to stay talking with them, as they remind him so much of Q and Teddy. But Fogg interrupts: “Julia, Eliot, let’s step into my office. Todd, you can go back to class, or the library, or whatever you need to do. Will, you and your son can wait here” Fogg, Julia, and Eliot enter Fogg’s office. Julia and Eliot sit down, while Fogg goes to his bar and pours himself a drink. He offers drinks to the two of them, but they both decline. Fogg sits down on his desk.   
“I have the books you asked for, though I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you, with whatever harebrained plan you are making. I’m surprised you’d be willing to try contacting a god, though after your experiences with them, I can’t even think of a reason why” Julia starts to protest, but with a hand gesture, Fogg stops her. “I’ve called you for an entirely different reason. The truth is, I need your help. With all this excess magic, enrolment has never been this big. To be honest, we’re swamped. We’ve got way too many new students and the upperclassmen can’t mentor all of them. We’ve even recruited former students, but it’s not enough. And we can’t forget about the surges. Since they started, we’ve lost 25 students and three faculty members.”  
Julia and Eliot look at each other. Julia asks: “Then what is it that you want?”  
“I’d like you to mentor a student, a pair of students” Fogg addresses Julia.   
“Uh, you remember that I’m not a Brakebills student, right? I mean, why would you want me to mentor a student? Why not ask Eliot?” Julia is baffled that Fogg would want her to be a mentor.   
“Because the students I’d like you to mentor are like no other. They aren’t like the scared new students that appear almost every day, who fear their powers. The students I’d like you to mentor already have incredible control. I’ve tested them. They know more than our graduate students do; they’re almost master magicians” Fogg explains.   
“If they’re so powerful and talented, why do you want Julia to mentor them? She’s a hedge, no offense, Jules” Eliot says.   
“None taken, El” Julia waves her hand at Eliot. “But Eliot’s right. Why me? I’m not classically trained. I’m a hedge and all I’ve learned has been on my own, mostly.”  
“I know, but you’re one of the most talented magicians I’ve ever met. I was wrong, not to accept you into Brakebills, 4 years ago. Eliza, well, Jane convinced me not to, to see if something changed with the time loops. I was wrong. You’ve proven your talents, time and again. You’ve overcome more trials than most master magicians and no matter how much you’ve lost, you’re still working to find a solution, to try to understand how magic works”   
Julia frowns. Eliot takes her hand and squeezes it. She doesn’t need to be reminded of what she’s been through, she remembers very well. She crosses her arms, over her chest and asks Fogg:   
“What makes you think I’ll agree to mentor those students? Why should I do you, any favors? Come on, El. If he isn’t going to help us, let’s take the books and get the hell out” Julia and Eliot stand up and start to leave Fogg’s office. They’re almost at the door when Fogg says:   
“They can detect surges. At least one of them does” Hearing these words, Julia and Eliot turn around. “Can you repeat that?” Eliot asks. Fogg nods. He’s got them interested again. That’s good.   
“One of the students I’d like you to mentor can detect the surges. He’s detected a few here, a couple of minor ones and two big ones, that would have killed all the people in the rooms where they happened. While he couldn’t fully stop the surges, he was able to save the people from the backlash of magic. I know you’re investigating the origin of the surges and how to stop them. I thought it might be useful” Fogg states.   
“Are you serious?” Julia asks. If there is a person who can detect the surges, maybe they can use his or her ability, to create a spell to stop them, before they become too strong. “Why didn’t you contact us before? You know how important this is for me, for us!” Julia almost shouts. Since she decided that she was going to use her newfound magic, to investigate and stop the surges, she’s been obsessing a bit about her research. It’s a coping mechanism not to think that Q is no longer there with them, with her.   
“Julia, I understand your urgency, but remember that we’re overwhelmed with the influx of students. Not only we have to test them for their disciplines, but we must also house them and make sure they don’t end up killing themselves with their new powers. Plus, these students only appeared a couple of days ago. I called you as soon as I could” Fogg tells Julia, in his teacher’s stern voice.   
“These students, what are their disciplines? And can we meet them?” Eliot asks, wanting to change the subject before the conversation becomes a shouting match between Fogg and Julia.  
“Actually, you’ve already met them,” Fogg says. Julia and Eliot look at each other. The only people they’ve met are the guy and his kid. Julia gets angry. She can’t believe they’d take on a child as a student. I mean, don’t powers appear when people are in their teens?  
“Are you fucking kidding me? A kid? You want to involve a kid in this shit? Wasn’t it enough to involve us, when we weren’t even trained, and now you want us to teach a kid, how to stop the end of the world?” She exclaims in outrage.   
“Actually, the one who can detect the surges is the dad. And before you decide to embark in a crusade to defend the poor little souls, I’ve already told you, they both have incredible control and know more than most of my faculty. It’s not so much about mentoring them, it’s more like an exchange program. I’m sure they can teach you new things, as well as you can teach them too” Fogg says.   
Julia and Eliot are speechless. They should be used to it by now, that Fogg twists any situation, so it benefits him somehow. In this case, he shakes the responsibility of potentially dangerous students and at the same time, if they help with the surges, all the better for him. They look at each other again. A silent conversation seems to happen between them. Sometimes, Julia whishes her psychic abilities were stronger, to be able to read Eliot’s mind and talk to him. But since she can’t do that, she just hopes he gets what she’s thinking about. Eliot nods and asks again:   
“Let’s say Julia decides to mentor these magical prodigies. What are their disciplines?”  
“Well, while he’s quite talented in most disciplines, the kid’s strongest talents lay both in healing and nature. In fact, I’m sure you’ve seen the kid with a puppy that looks just like Gerald. He was able to call it into existence, combining earth, living clay and a bone from the original puppy. Now Gerald lives again, but he’s cancer-free” Fogg explains.   
“And the father?” Julia asks. She knows she shouldn’t think about it, getting a kid to help her, but maybe, just maybe, and if the dad agrees, the kid can when they decide to bring back Q if petitioning the Gods fail.   
“The father, he’s more difficult to classify” Fogg stops for a second.   
“What, is he undetermined?” Eliot asks. He remembers how Q felt, when he was considered undetermined and how it worried him that he wouldn’t be a physical kid and would have to leave the cottage. After Q died, Alice told Eliot that Q had finally found his discipline, repair of small objects. He’d been a physical kid since the beginning, Eliot remembers fondly. He shakes his head, tearing up slightly. He takes a deep breath and tries to calm down. If he goes down that path, he’ll start thinking about Q again, and he’ll want to go back to the apartment, get in Q’s room, lie down on his bed and cry all the tears he has left. He’ll have time to do that, now Julia needs him.   
“We can’t say he’s undetermined, as he’s talented in all of them. The best way to describe him would be as multidisciplinary” Fogg tells them. “So, will you become their mentors?”  
Julia and Eliot look at each other again. It seems way too easy. Two mystery students, coming out of nowhere and who have abilities in fields they sorely need? There must be a trick somewhere. Maybe they are librarians in disguise, still following Everett’s orders, or lackeys from the McAllistair’s, no matter that Fogg says they’re no longer an issue.   
“Before we agree to mentor them, we have a few questions,” Julia says. “First, where do they come from? How did they find about Brakebills? How come they’ve appeared now and not at the beginning of the term? And where would they live?”  
“To answer your questions, they are from New York, from a small town, upstate. They found about Brakebills, just like everybody does. Something called them here, which is what’s been happening with all the new students. And apparently, they’ve been traveling, that’s why they weren’t here at the beginning of the term. As for their living arrangements, I was hoping you could house them, in that apartment you have downtown. With all the new students, housing has become a problem and we don’t have enough room. And this is not the best environment for a six-year-old child” Fogg tells them.  
No shit, Julia thinks. “And an apartment with people coming and going, where we all are involved in dangerous projects, and with a landlady who’s a crazy witch, is the best environment?” She questions, sarcastically. Eliot agrees with her.   
But Fogg, not wanting to be deterred, says: “Well, there’s always the Physical Kid’s Cottage. Since you were there, the last time, it has closed off to other students, even physical kids. We believe I believe that you and your friends created some sort of connection with the cottage and it won’t allow any other students to live in it” Fogg explains.   
“You talk of the cottage as if it were a sentient being,” Eliot says.   
“I wouldn’t say sentient, but when people have strong experiences in a place and emotions are linked, somehow, the place attunes itself to the needs of those people. That’s why you wouldn’t have any problems with staying in the Cottage” Fogg explains. “So, will you do it? Will you mentor Will and his son?   
Julia nods. “We’ll give it a try. But if they interfere with our projects, we’ll send them back and you’ll have to look for other mentors”  
“Fair enough. But I’m sure it won’t come to that. And think about relocating to the Cottage, you’d have all the Brakebills resources at your disposal” Fogg says.   
They get out of Fogg’s office. Julia and Fogg are still talking about the surges, spell work … Eliot just tunes them out. He’s staring at Will and his son. They are sitting on the floor, playing with the puppy. Suddenly, an image overlaps. It’s a scene, from another lifetime, in a different world. Eliot sees Quentin and Teddy, sitting on the floor, playing, just like they had done, so many times in the cottage. In the scene, Quentin is doing magic for Teddy, who laughs in wonderment at the flower petals his dad is making fly. Eliot turns around to see if Julia is seeing the same thing, but she’s still talking to Fogg. When he turns to look at Will and his son, the image is gone, and he just sees two strangers he’s just met. Fingers snap in front of him. Julia is asking him something.   
“Can you repeat the question?” Eliot asks.   
“I just said if you’re ready to go. Will says he can travel” Julia tells him.   
Will/Quentin nods “Can you lower your mental wards a little, so I can get an image of where you want to go?” He asks them.   
“Wait, you can travel somewhere without having been there before, just with an image of the place?” Julia questions him, surprised. Not even Penny can do that, and he’s been traveling a lot, lately.   
Will/Quentin lifts his shoulders, shrugs and says “Well, I’ve always been able to travel pretty much anywhere I wanted, but if I have a clear image of the place, of where it’s situated, I’m more exact. With just an image, I could appear anywhere that looks like that. It’s happened, a couple of times” Will/Quentin says. He doesn’t like lying, especially to his friends, but since no one can know he’s back and that he’s a god, not to mention Teddy, he will have to think of some pretty good lies, the following days.   
“Ok, you can look now,” Julia says, lowering her mental wards. Will/Quentin cradles her head, while he “sees” where the apartment is located. Again, he could just travel them there, he lived in that place for almost a year, but he ‘s got to keep his and Teddy’s cover.   
“Ok, I’m done. Luke, can you take Miss Julia’s hand?” Will/Quentin asks his son, while he offers his hand to Eliot. It feels so nice to hold Eliot’s hand, after such a long time. He squeezes Eliot’s hand, who’s staring at him, strangely. Will/Quentin takes Luke/Teddy’s other hand, while Julia and Eliot do the same. Saying goodbye to Fogg, they travel out of Brakebills.   
They appear in the apartment, with Margo coming to greet them. When she sees Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy, she makes a grimace and asks:   
“Who the fuck are they?” It’s nice to be back, Will/Quentin thinks.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Q and Teddy reunite with the gang, Eliot gets flashes of his life with Q and some discoveries are made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all!  
> Here's a new chapter! Holy cow! It's a monster of a chapter, I know, but I didn't want to end the chapter on a cliffhanger. Hope you like it!   
> So I've read that s5 is going to be the final season of the Magicians unless another network takes it. I'm sorry if I'm making a spoiler! Anyway, I've read different things about why they're canceling it: some say that SYFY, doesn't usually do series beyond 5 seasons. Others say that it's because of low ratings, that many people stopped after S4 ended. I don't know about that, but if this is indeed the last season, I'd love for them to bring back Q for the finale at least. Maybe we can have the resolution Queliot fans deserve. Any theories about how it will end?  
> So enjoy the chapter and as always, kuddos and comments are appreciated

“Who the fuck are they?” Margo asks, as soon as she sees them appearing in the apartment. Julia and Eliot let go of Will/Quentin’s and Luke/Teddy’s hands, which Will/Quentin uses, to pick Luke/Teddy in his arms, who’s holding the puppy like a lifeline. 

“Bambi, no need to use such a vulgar language in the presence of small children,” Eliot says, while he hugs Margo and kisses her in the forehead. Julia, who has been putting away the books Fogg has given them, comes back to the kitchen, where they have moved to, and introduces Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy: 

“Margo, these are Will and Luke. They are Brakebills students and Fogg has asked us to mentor them. They will be staying with us, for the time being,” 

Will/Quentin, with Luke/Teddy in his arms, moves to say hello to Margo. But Margo doesn’t make any moves that indicate she wants to greet him and just stays hugging Eliot. Will/Quentin stops and just waves, asking Luke/Teddy to do the same. It hurts, a little, that Margo is cold with him, considering their re-meeting it’s almost a repeat from their first one. Both times it’s Eliot who introduces them. 

Margo just nods in his direction, with a brisk hello and then addresses Julia: 

“Wicker, can we talk, in private?” Margo asks while pulling Eliot in Julia’s direction. Will/Quentin sighs and says: 

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to sit on the couch. This boy isn’t getting any smaller” And he moves to the couch, where he sets Luke/Teddy. They both start playing with the puppy, using one of Will/Quentin’s shoelaces, to play a little tug-of-war. 

Eliot gives one look at the father and son pair, before giving all his attention to Margo, who’s started asking Julia questions, in a not so silent tone. 

“Ok, what the fuck? What the fuck is Fogg playing at? Doesn’t he know we’re up to our tits in deep shit and he wants you to play fucking Gandalfs, to a pair of newbies, who probably don’t know how to make a difference between a proper tut and their own asses?” 

“Bambi, as much as I like your colorful language, I’d like to ask you to cut down the number of curses. There is a kid present” Eliot says. He feels oddly protective of Will and Luke, probably because they remind him of Quentin and Teddy. And when he remembers them, he feels a flash of sharp pain, for thinking that Will and Luke might replace Q and Teddy. 

“Fuck you El. I’m not going to stop talking about how I usually do, just because you want to get into that dad’s good graces. You’ve been behaving like Coldwater’s fucking widow for months and now you’re all perky and caring about a guy you know shit about?” Margo tells Eliot, angrily, not caring if Will hears her. “He looks like he’s a nerd and we don’t need one of those, with their high-strung needs. And you, are you looking for a replacement friend?” Margo asks Julia. 

Eliot takes a deep breath. He doesn’t want to get angry with Margo, not when they are slowly mending their friendship. Julia doesn’t stay quiet, though “Fuck you, Margo. You can’t talk to us like that. And you don’t get to accuse us of trying to replace Q, not when you weren’t even here for most of the time, six months ago” Julia stops. The last thing they need is getting angry at each other, but with Margo, it’s difficult not to get angry, not when she talks about what happened. Julia sometimes gets the same reaction with Penny and Alice, when they start talking about Q and what a mess he was. Penny, she understands, even if she doesn’t like it. Alice, it’s a completely different story. She was Q’s girlfriend when he died, for fuck’s sake. But when she talks about him, she often remembers the bad moments and how Q wasn’t the best boyfriend. When Alice talks about Q like that, Julia wonders what Q saw in her and how come they worked as a couple, when it’s obvious that they’re completely wrong for each other. But she’s digressing. Now, Eliot and she have to convince the others of letting a couple of complete strangers stay with them. 

Eliot then starts saying something to Margo, when Alice, Kady, and Penny appear in the apartment. 

“What is going on?” Kady asks when she sees the argument Eliot and Julia are having with Margo. She hasn’t seen Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy yet, as they have appeared in the hall of the apartment. 

Penny, who has traveled into the kitchen has seen the two strangers. 

“Who are the dude and the kid? What are they doing here?” He asks. Before Eliot or Julia can answer, Margo does it for them. 

“The dude and the kid, as you call them, are the favor Fogg has called them in for. He wants for Julia or Eliot to mentor them as if we didn’t have enough problems!

Alice, the voice of reason, looks at Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy, who are still playing with the puppy. She recognizes the puppy, Gerald, the cancer puppy. But she remembers Quentin telling her that he’d killed Gerald by accident, when he was trying to look for a spell, to cure his dad’s cancer. 

“Isn’t that … Gerald, Brakebill's mascot?” She asks. 

“Oh, yeah. The kid brought it into existence, using some earth, living clay and a bone from the original puppy” Julia tells her. 

Alice is surprised. A kid that young, being able to do such strong magic? And the father? Because the man with him, it’s obviously his dad, they look too much alike. “What about the father?” She questions Julia and Eliot. 

Eliot gives Julia a look that says, “You explain this, I’m too mad to do so”. Julia nods at Eliot and explains: “The father, Will, that’s his name, according to Fogg is almost a master magician, they both are”

“And what are their disciplines? If they’re so talented, I’m sure they must have been tested for them” Alice wonders. 

“Yeah, the kid is part nature, part healing, and the dad is multi-disciplined,” Eliot says. 

Except for Julia, the others all turn to stare at Eliot. 

“That’s fucking impossible, you can only have one discipline,” Margo says. 

“I agree with Margo. There are no documented cases of magicians having more than one discipline. The toll would be incredible, and the body couldn’t stand it” Alice says. 

“Shit, there is no way that Fogg would be so lucky to find two students like that, and send them of to you,” Kady says, always suspicious of what Fogg says. 

“Are you sure they are normal? I mean, aside from the obvious. Have you read their minds?” Penny asks. 

Eliot and Julia sigh. Will/Quentin, who has been inadvertently eavesdropping, gets up, takes Luke/Teddy in his arms and approaches the group. He goes towards Penny, Alice, and Kady. 

“Hi, we haven’t met. I’m Will and this is my son Luke. I’d offer my hand, but this guy is getting bigger and I need both arms to hold him” Will/Quentin says as a greeting. “It’s obvious there are things you need to talk about and probably it’s best if Luke and I are not here. If you don’t mind, I’m taking the puppy outside, in the terrace and then Luke and I will leave to take our stuff, which is in a hotel” 

Will/Quentin takes his phone out. Before Teddy and he were sent back on earth, the gods restored his wallet and cellphone, apart from a couple of personal items. “Listen, this is my cell-phone number. Why don’t you give me a call, when you’re done?” He gives his phone number to Julia, who saves it on her phone. And he and Luke/Teddy travel out of the apartment, leaving Alice, Kady, Margo, and Penny, quite astounded. 

“They can travel. They can fucking travel. And I’m guessing they don’t need tattoos to direct them” Penny says. 

“Not that we have seen any. But then, they were wearing long sleeves” Julia tells Penny. 

“Anything else they can do?” Alice asks. They all move to the living room and sit on the sofas. 

“We haven’t seen them but according to Fogg, Will can detect the surges and has saved a few people from them” Eliot states. 

“No kidding? What are they, magic wonder man and kid?” Margo says. 

“Oh Bambi, your nerdiness is showing. We don’t know. That’s all Fogg’s told us” Eliot addresses Margo. 

“If you know what’s good for you, El, you’ll shut your damn mouth now. Go back to thinking about nerd-daddy” Margo says with a smile. If Eliot starts bantering with her, it means she’s not in deep shit with him. 

“If they can detect surges, maybe we can work on that, how to prevent them, before they happen and how to stop them altogether,” Alice says. If they can find a way to channel their ability to detect the surges, maybe they can create a spell to detect them, way before they happen. From there, it might be easier to find a way to stop them, considering they seem to be getting stronger and more frequent. 

“My thoughts exactly. We’ll talk to Will, ask him what he feels when a surge is going to appear and ask him to travel us where the surge is. That way, we’ll be able to see what he does” Julia agrees with Alice. 

“Okay, that’s all very good and I’m all for stopping the surges. But what about the hedges? Do you think they can help with the worms?” Kady asks Julia. 

“We can ask them, but I don’t think they’ll have any problems. Fogg’s idea is for us to teach them and for them to teach us, like an exchange program. I’m sure they’ll be ok in helping us with the hedges. They seem like nice people” Julia states. 

“Then I’m cool” Kady crosses her arms over her chest. Julia looks at Alice. “Alice, what about you?”

“I’m ok too, especially if they can help with the surges”

“Penny, Margo?” Julia asks the other two. Eliot, she knows he’s on board.

“Fine by me. Having another traveler in the group means I won’t be your personal glorified uber” Penny says, with a shrug of his shoulders. 

They all look at Margo. She grits her teeth, she wants to say something, but she doesn’t. She sighs and says “Ok, but only if they help with the Fillory situation too. But before we go all Kumbaya and welcome them in our group, two things. One, where are they going to sleep? There is only one free room” She says that looking at Eliot. She doesn’t need to say who’s the free room is. “And two, the anniversary is coming up. It’s in a couple of weeks and do we want to have a couple of strangers around?” Margo knows she’s being a bit bitchy, but when she’s cornered, she lashes out. 

“I didn’t know you cared so much about Q,” Kady says.

“Shut up. He was my friend and while I’m not martyring myself, I miss him too” Margo knows that part of her fallout with Eliot is how they have faced Q’s death. While Eliot’s gone full mourning widower, Margo has pushed Q to a far corner of her heart and mind. She tries not to think about him, because it reminds her that she wasn’t a good friend, not at the end. Instead, she hides her pain under her bravado, concentrating on Fillory and recovering her Kingship. Having Josh and Fen certainly, help. 

“She has a good point. If they’re going to stay here, they’ll have to take Q’s room. We should pick his things up and put them into storage” Alice says, always practical. Eliot narrows her eyes at her. He’s angry with her, more now that she’s sleeping/dating Kady. They haven’t defined their relationship, but it has helped her a lot. However, when she sees Eliot in Q’s room, she feels guilty that she hasn’t mourned Q as much as she should, considering they’d gone back together before he died. Eliot has kind of replaced her in that aspect. She gets angry with him too. As far as she knows, Eliot didn’t have a claim on Q, not before he’d died. She knew that what Q felt for Eliot was more than friendship, she’d seen how hard Q had fought to get Eliot back, even when most of them agreed they should kill the monster, even if Eliot died in the process. And before Q died, they didn’t have time to really talk about what it meant, them being back together. Even more, after Q died, Alice’s been asking herself if they made the right call. What she has with Kady, it feels right. Kady is more independent, which suits her, now that she’s busy with the Library. And she gets the bad aspects of magic, the addiction it can become. Q, no matter how much pain magic brought him, he always kept that wonderment, that belief that magic could make things better. 

However, she also remembers that Q befriended her, not because of who she was, or her connections, but because he was genuinely interested in her, as a person. He helped her with Charlie, got her shade back and cared for her, even if they’d broken up. And after she’d betrayed them, he was one of the first to trust her again. So, she feels conflicted, angry at Q, for leaving her with this mess, not knowing how to approach Eliot, so they can talk about Q and guilty because while what she has with Kady helps her a lot, there’s a small voice in her mind that says she’s betraying Q. Therefore, as Margo does, she pushes her thought about Q, into a far recess of her mind and decides she’ll be the practical one, the reasonable one, as opposed to the more emotional Julia and Eliot. 

Alice stands up, making a move towards Q’s room. If no one is going to, she might as well put his things into storage. Before she can leave the living room, Eliot speaks: 

“Q’s room is not the only room they can use. One of us could take his old room and give them another. Or two of us could share. It’s not like we’re short on space” 

“Even if one of us takes Q’s room, we still should put his things away. I mean, as much as I liked him, I wouldn’t want to sleep in a room with the things of a dead person” Penny says.

“It’s easy for you to say, you never really liked him” Margo argues. Penny stares at her. 

“Look, the Quentin from my timeline was an asshole, and that might have influenced how I treated him, but in the end, he was an ok guy, even when he couldn’t keep his mental wards up for shit” Penny defends himself. 

“Penny …” Julia warns Penny, who falls silent. They all remain silent for a few minutes. Kady breaks the silence finally. 

“Look, we can sit with our thumbs up to our asses, discussing what to do with Coldwater’s room, but the truth is that none of us wants to move there, really. And it’s one of the biggest rooms, close to one of the bathrooms. The practical thing should be for the newbies to take that room”

“There’s still the issue about Q’s things,” Alice says. As soon as she says that, another argument breaks out, about who should pack Q’s things. 

Meanwhile, not far from the apartment, Quentin and Teddy are in Central Park. They’ve walked around for a bit, Quentin telling Teddy, all about the cars, museums, buildings, buses, tourists … One of the things Quentin wants to do is to take Luke/Teddy to the zoo. Maybe start with the Central Park Zoo, and then go to a bigger one, like the Bronx zoo. And Coney Island, the Empire State Building, Harlem, and Chinatown … But they “have” time and he doesn’t want to overwhelm Teddy. Plus, once Eliot and the others pass the Gods test, he’s sure Eliot will want to do many of the activities he’s planned. Julia too. For now, he’s going to start with something easy: ice-cream. In Fillory, in the summer, they would have something like slushies, but not ice-cream. They find an ice-cream truck and he buys two cups, one chocolate, and one vanilla, with rainbow sprinkles. They sit on a bench and Quentin teaches Teddy how to eat the ice-cream. It’s not too hot, so the ice-cream doesn’t melt as easily as it would in the summer. While they eat the ice-cream, Quentin asks his son a question that has been on his mind, since they left Brakebills: 

“Hey buddy, do you like the ice-cream?” Teddy nods vigorously and continues eating the ice-cream. “Ok, calm down. If you eat very fast, it can make your head hurt. Be careful” Quentin messes his son’s hair. “Teddy, can you tell me why you hit papa when we met him?”

Teddy looks at him, with sad puppy eyes and pouts, which makes Quentin laugh because his dad used to say he’d have the same look when he was little. Too bad Ted’s not here to see it. Teddy looks down, at his ice-cream. Quentin tickles him, lightly, careful not to make Teddy drop the cup. Teddy looks at his dad, who’s smiling at him and not angry. 

“Will you be mad, daddy?” Teddy asks, still with the big sad puppy eyes. “That I hitted papa”

“Of course not, bud! I’m just a little surprised. You love papa a lot and I know that you missed him” 

Teddy’s still reluctant. “Promise you won’t get mad?”

“Cross my heart” Quentin chuckles, but does the cross sign on his chest. 

“I kicked papa because he was mean to you!” Teddy raises his voice in anger. “Mama said to give papa a good kick on the butt, for making you sad!”

“Oh, Teddy!” Quentin can’t help it. He sets the ice-cream cups on the bench and hugs his son. They stay like that for a moment and Q sets Teddy on the bench again, so they can continue eating the ice-creams. 

“Did really mama tell you to kick papa in the butt?” Q wonders if that’s what Ari told Teddy before they left. He also wonders whether Teddy remembers what they talked about, in the God’s office, before he was turned into a kid again. 

Teddy nods again. “Mama said I had to take care of you if papa is not there. And she said that you were sad because papa was an idiot. And when papa is with us, I have to tell him that he’s dumber than Ember’s balls and a dummy!” Teddy says fiercely. 

Q laughs, tearing up a bit. Oh, he’s missed his family so much! And Ari’s still his greater defender, with a dragon-slaying knight that’s his son. He understands his son’s protectiveness, but if they’re going to live with his friends, while they’re under the Gods glamour, Teddy can’t continue kicking the shins of everyone who’s hurt Quentin. 

“Teddy” He says, firmly, but not too stern. “I’m really glad that you are my defender, my most brave knight” Teddy beams proudly at his dad’s words. “But you can’t hit people in the shin, every time, not even to protect me.” Teddy mumbles something. “Can you repeat that?” Quentin asks. 

“I didn’t want to hit papa in the shin. I wanted to hit him in the butt as mama said. But papa is very big” Teddy says, looking at the floor. 

Quentin laughs out loud, which startles Teddy. “Yes, he’s very tall, he’s almost a giant. Remember how high you were, when he played the flying horse with you? Or when he’d throw you and catch you?”

Teddy smiles “Mama would scold papa and then you. Daddy, when is papa going to remember us?” He asks Q, looking sad. 

“I don’t know buddy” Quentin would love to tell his son that Eliot is going to see through the god’s glamour soon, but he doesn’t know and the fact that he never might, fills him with dread. 

“I hope it’s soon, if not, I’m going to kick papa on the shins again,” Teddy says, with the angriest look a 6-year-old can make, which is not very fierce. 

“Tell you what. If papa doesn’t remember us soon, I’m going to kick him in the butt. How does that sound?” Quentin asks his son, with a knowing smile. 

“Dad, you said hitting people is bad!” Teddy looks amazed at his dad. 

With a conspiring look, Q says “Sometimes, when people are being really stupid, a small kick on the butt isn’t too bad” 

“You promise?” Teddy asks.

Q offers his pinkie. “Pinkie promise” And they settle it with said promise. He looks around, and he sees that it’s getting dark. They should get back to the apartment. Before they do that, they need money and clothes. Apart from giving him his personal items back, the gods also created identity papers for Teddy and they gave them a room in one of Manhattan’s best hotels, where they found a full wardrobe for Teddy and him, plus other things, like toys, books …. 

Their ice-creams have melted in the cups, while they’ve been talking so they throw them in the bin. Quentin takes Teddy’s hand and they leave the park. While they walk, he asks Teddy:   
“What did you think about the ice-cream?” 

Teddy smiles and says “I love it! Can I have more? How many flavors are there? Is there a peach ice-cream? And plum ice-cream? And honey ice-cream? Can I always have sprinkles?” 

Quentin smiles fondly at his son. One earthly thing checked off the list. “Wow, easy tiger! I know there is peach ice-cream, but I’m not sure about plum. I think there is a place that does honey ice-cream, but I’d have to look for it. And you can have sprinkles, all the sprinkles you want! Tell you what, why don’t we come with papa one day, and you can tell him how much you like ice-cream and maybe eat his too”

“Yeah, ice-cream with papa! And maybe we can invite Aunt Julia too!” Teddy imagines coming to the park with his daddy, his papa, and his aunt. 

“What about Aunt Margo?” Q asks. 

“Aunt Margo scares me” Teddy looks sad. “Will papa be mad at me?” 

Quentin stops, kneels in front of his son and hugs him. “No buddy. Papa won’t be mad. I know Aunt Margo is a bit scary, but when she knows who you are, she’s going to love you as much as papa or me” He tries to calm his son. Teddy hugs him back. 

“Want a piggyback ride?” Teddy nods and Quentin gives him a ride until they get out of the park. They go to the hotel room, where they pack their stuff in an enchanted bag of holding. Being a god, it’s sure handy for quick spell work. Quentin puts the jeweled box that contains the godhood’s in his messenger bag, and they check out of the room. In the lobby, he withdraws some money. Wow, becoming a god, really comes with a hefty bank account. He wonders if Julia knew about that, in her short time as a goddess. When they have everything, they travel back into the apartment, startling the others. 

“Hello, we’re back,” Will/Quentin says as a greeting. The others are arguing still about Q’s room and things, so they don’t hear Will/Quentin. He clears his throat loudly and repeats, louder this time: 

“Hello, we’re back!” They all turn around to look at them. Luke/Teddy, not happy with the attention, hides behind Will/Quentin's legs. Penny, seeing that they only have one suitcase comments:   
“You don’t really have too many things” 

Will/Quentin looks at the case and clarifies: “Uh, oh no. The bag is enchanted. It’s a bag of holding, like in Harry Potter”

“Oh, great, another nerd” Margo comments. “Hey nerd, maybe you can help us, being a neutral party and all”

Will/Quentin gets curious “Uhm, ok. What’s the problem? If you can tell”

“Well, the room we have free used to be occupied by one of our friends, but he’s not here anymore” Margo explains. 

“Oh, did he leave? Is he coming back? I wouldn’t want to take his room, only for him to return” Will/Quentin asks, knowing they’re talking about him. He’s a bit curious, what will they say about him?

“No, he died,” Margo says, looking somber and serious. 

“Oh. I’m sorry about your loss” Will/Quentin says. Now it’s getting a little weird. 

“The problem is we don’t know what to do with his things. They’re still in the room and none of us has had the courage to pack them” Alice speaks. 

Will/Quentin gets an idea. If it works, he’ll get his old things back. He just has to figure out how to glamour them. “I could do it” he offers. 

They all look at him. He feels a little nervous, with all of them staring at him like he’s grown a second head. 

“No, think about it. As a neutral person, I can put his things away. Storage them in boxes and create a space for them in the closet, until you figure what you want to do with his things”

“The newbie has a point,” Margo says. They all seem to agree. Quentin claps his hands and says: 

“Why don’t we do this? If there’s something of his that you’d like to take, why don’t you take it now and I’ll put the rest away. That way, Luke and I can settle down” he offers. 

Eliot is the first to go. He comes out of his room, with his favorite hoodie. Julia is next. She comes out with one of her Fillory books, one of his first editions. Alice is the last one. She comes out with a white sweater. Will/Quentin recognizes it as the sweater that was part of the uniform in Brakebills south when they first got together. Uh, it’s oddly sentimental. She goes to Kady, who hugs her and kisses her on the forehead. Hum, that’s new, Will/Quentin thinks. Before he can give any more thoughts, Margo says: 

“Room is all yours newbie”

“Ok, thanks. After we’re done putting our things away, Luke and I are going to have dinner. Anyone wants to come?” Will/Quentin offers. 

None of the others answer, so Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy go to their, his room. Q puts a silencing charm and wards, so no one can get in. If it gets too weird, he’s going to take Fogg’s offer and live at the cottage. 

“Ok, kiddo. Want to help daddy put away our things?” He asks Teddy. They make a game of it, levitating things, with Teddy chasing them and Quentin trying to get them away from Teddy. It’s like a game of tug-of-war, but magical. 

“Daddy! The puppy! He’s outside and we left him alone!” Teddy says. 

“Shit! Wait here, I’m going to take him. Do you want to prepare a corner for him to sleep?” It will be a good way for Teddy to practice his abilities. Teddy nods and he starts to transform a corner of the room. Quentin leaves the room. 

Kady and Alice have started preparing dinner. Not really, it’s more of getting the plates out, for the takeaway Penny is bringing. Eliot, Julia, and Margo are discussing strategies on Fillory. 

“Sorry, we forgot about the puppy. You don’t mind we keep him here, do you?” Will/Quentin asks.

“As long as I don’t have to walk it or pick his shit, I’m cool,” Kady says. 

“I don’t mind either. Maybe one day, you could show me what Luke did?” Alice asks. Will/Quentin nods and asks the others: “Sorry for asking, but do you mind if the puppy stays?”

“It’s potty trained? Because if not, I don’t want the furball near my shoes or my clothes.” Margo says. 

“Come on, Margo. It’s a magical puppy!” Julia says.

“I don’t care if it was created with fucking rainbows. Josh is human, and a magician, but when he becomes furry once a month, he can’t keep it in his pants. And I’m not talking about sex. Dogs are dogs, no matter the size and age” Margo states.

Will/Quentin and Eliot make a look of disgust. “Thanks for the info, Bambi”

Will/Quentin takes the puppy and brings it to the room.

“He needs a name,” He tells his son. Teddy has created an amazing area for the puppy: there’s a bed, a pad where he can pee, enchanted so it cleans itself, many toys, a couple of hooks, for putting a leash and a collar, bowls, for food, water, and treats. “Wow, that’s very nice,” Q says. Teddy looks at him proudly. “Will the puppy be happy here?” 

“I’m sure he’ll be super happy. But you know what’s going to make him happier? If we give him a cool name. What do you think?” Q asks his son. Teddy nods and gets a pensive look. His eyes illuminate and he smiles “I’ve got it! How about Farvel?” 

“No, he doesn’t look like a Farvel. And remember, until our friends remember us, we can’t let them know we know about Fillory. It’s our secret, remember?” Quentin says. 

Teddy thinks again, touching his chin, while he does that. For a while, all the names he thinks about, have something to do with Fillory. Quentin shuts them all down. Teddy starts to get frustrated and before he throws a tantrum, Quentin suggests: “How about Balto? It’s the name of a famous dog. There’s a statue in the park. We can take him there tomorrow” 

Teddy ponders on the name and he breaks into a huge grin “I love it!” He picks the puppy and says, “Your name is Balto!” The puppy licks his chin and nose and Teddy laughs. “Daddy, he’s kissing me!”   
“I see it. Now, put him down, so he can get to know his new room. Then we’ll go to have dinner, a bath and to bed with you” Quentin says. 

Teddy makes a gesture of disgust again. “Daddy, I don’t need a bath” 

“Ohh, trust me, you need one. But you’ll like the baths here. The water is hot, and we can have bubbles and toys! It’ll be fun” Quentin thanks the amenities modern life has. Getting Teddy to take a bath at the mosaic was a challenge when he was a kid. When he became a teenager, and more worried about his looks, not so much, but kid Teddy would do anything he could, not to take a bath every night. 

Teddy pouts, but a loud grumble comes out of his stomach. Quentin grabs his hand and they travel out of the apartment. “Come on, let’s go feed the monster in your tummy”

They go to an Italian restaurant. Teddy loves pasta and Quentin has fun teaching him how to eat spaghetti. They go back to the apartment. Julia’s still in the kitchen, sitting at the kitchen island, with her laptop and some books spread out. Alice is reading in one of the armchairs. Margo and Eliot are sitting on the sofa, each drinking a glass of wine. Kady’s in her room, talking to Pete, about some hedge issues. There’s the sound of a shower running. Probably Penny, the only one not accounted for. 

Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy greet them. They chat for a few seconds with Julia, who wants them to go with her to Brakebills, the following day. After that, Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy go to their room. Will/Quentin finishes getting the room ready. He makes it bigger, so it can fit his bed and Luke/Teddy’s. It’s weird, being back with his friends and them not knowing it’s him, treating him like a stranger. Thank god for Teddy. He helps Teddy have a bath and he puts his son to bed. He reads one of the books he’s bought for Teddy. Teddy’s familiar with fillorian stories, and Eliot and Quentin had tried to teach him about the classical fairytales. But now, Quentin wants him to know other authors, like Dr. Seuss, or Roald Dahl. Or some comic books, like Calvin and Hobbes. They decide on Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book. Quentin has fun making the voices of the different characters. After all the excitement of today, Teddy falls quickly asleep. 

The following days Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy settle into a routine with the others. Will/Quentin wakes up first, to take the puppy out for a walk. After that, he wakes Luke/Teddy and they have breakfast, get ready and depending on the day, they will spend it with Julia, or Eliot, or Alice. Margo, Kady, and Penny don’t interact with them as much. Alice just talks to them, to discuss spells. 

One afternoon, Eliot arrives at the apartment, to see that Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy are asleep on the sofa. They have been working with Julia and Alice in the morning, then Will/Quentin has been teaching Luke/Teddy 1st grade subjects, like reading, maths, and science. After lunch, they’ve fallen asleep, that’s how Eliot finds them. Will/Quentin is curled around Luke/Teddy as if he were protecting him. They’re both wearing short-sleeved t-shirts and they seem a little cold. Eliot takes a blanket and covers the pair. He gets another flash, another vision, whatever, you want to call it, of doing the same thing for Q and Teddy. He stays there for a moment. Some of Will/Quentin’s hair is covering his face, and Eliot makes a gesture to brush it off. Before he can do that, Penny and Julia, who’ve been out, on a date, arrive at the apartment. Eliot shushes them, but the flash is gone, and he no longer sees Quentin and Teddy. 

A few days later, Kady approaches Will/Quentin, while he’s preparing Luke/Teddy’s breakfast. Luke/Teddy is sitting in one of the tall chairs that are around the kitchen island. He’s practicing his writing, and he’s biting his lip, something he does when he’s concentrated in something. “Your kid, he’s good at healing, right?” She says, as a greeting, at the same time she takes a mug and pours some coffee. She leans on the counter, near the sink, looking at Will/Quentin, while he cooks. 

“Hello to you too, Kady. Yes, he’s quite proficient. Why do you ask?” Will/Quentin is curious. It’s the first time that Kady has approached him, voluntarily. She sighs, not looking very happy. 

“Look, I need your help. I wouldn’t be asking if it were some dumb thing, but I’m kind of in a bind” 

“Ok, care to explain what you need us for?” Will/Quentin won’t allow Luke/Teddy to do anything that’s too dangerous, even if he’s a god. 

Kady takes a deep breath and let’s go. “A few months ago, there was this problem between the Library and the Hedges. The Library wanted to control the access to magic and their head, you know, the one who was there before Alice created some magical worms. Posing as a rogue hedge coven, he and others kidnapped hedges and infected them with the worms. If the hedges tried to use magic, the worms burned them from inside out”

“Nasty” Will/Quentin comments. 

“Yeah, that’s not just it. The head librarian offered a tattoo that blocked their powers until a way to remove the worms was found. He never intended to follow that promise. Now, we have many hedges who were infected. Some got the tattoo, some didn’t. Alice and I, with the help of other librarians and hedges, have been looking for a way to remove the worms safely, but we haven’t found any viable options. And with the surges, even when hedges don’t use their powers, they’re affected by them. Several hedges have lost limbs and a couple have died” Kady explains. “I was thinking that maybe your kid and you can help. Maybe get a new approach”

Will/Quentin feels sad for her. Kady was thrown into a position she didn’t want; in a war, she didn’t want to get involved with. But one of the things Will/Quentin admires about her is her resiliency and her willingness to help, even when it seems a lost cause. But now it seems she wants to use his son, to deal with the worms. He looks at her, straight in the eye7and says “Wait, you want my son to look into something that not only it’s dangerous but also nightmare-inducing?”

“Look, at this point, I’m grasping at straws. I’ll take any help I can. I’m sorry about your kid, but he seems the best option we have now. It’s been six months, more or less and it feels I’ve been banging my head against a wall. Sometimes I feel that I stepped into a role that’s too big for me” Kady is a bit surprised she’s telling Will/Quentin this. “I know the hedges deserve to be equal, we’ve been screwed by the system for way too long. But sometimes, I feel like some deserve what’s happening to them, for getting into the wrong covens, or for trying to screw with the system way too much. And it frustrates me, that they expect me to have all the answers and don’t try to look for the solution themselves” She says, rubbing her arms. When she feels frustrated, she wishes she isn’t trying to remain clean, even if sometimes the only thing she wants is to get a fix of anything. 

“I get that, I really do. It’s a FUBAR situation, coming to a leadership position when you never asked for it and people expecting you to have all the answers. And to have that sinking feeling that you have absolutely no fucking idea of what you’re doing” Will/Quentin starts saying, but Kady interrupts him.

“Then what, you’re not going to help?” She gets confrontational and Will/Quentin feels the power rising from her. Will/Quentin knows that he can best her in magic, but he doesn’t want to. He tries to calm her down. “I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that I’m not going to allow my son to be involved in something that’s potentially very dangerous” Will/Quentin says firmly. Before, he’d have backed down, but he’s not going to let anyone intimidate him, into doing what they want. “I’ll help you, if you want, on one condition, though.” Kady makes an angry face. She seems to want to hit something, Will/Quentin being the closest thing. To calm her, he says “Relax, I’m not asking for anything impossible. The thing is that we pick a neutral place, preferably somewhere we won’t be disturbed, and that won’t lead to turf wars between covens” 

Kady lets out a long-suffering sigh “Fine. If I get the place, can you do it tomorrow?” 

“Yeah. I just have to ask if someone can babysit Luke for the day” Will/Quentin agrees. 

“I’ll tell you the details later” And Kady leaves, talking on the phone as she does so. Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy remain in the kitchen. Will/Quentin finishes preparing Luke/Teddy’s and his breakfast.

“Luke, if you had to spend the day with papa tomorrow, what would you think?” He asks his son.

Luke/Teddy beams and his smile gets huge. “All day with papa? Yay! Can I ask him to take me to get more ice-cream? Can we go to see the funny animals? Or can he show me where loads of books live? ” Luke/Teddy asks, talking a mile a minute, almost vibrating from excitement, so much that he almost falls from the chair. 

Will/Quentin smiles and stops the chair from toppling, with some magic. “Calm down buddy. First, we must ask papa if he can spend the day with you. And if he says yes, you must be nice to him, no more kicking him, ok?” 

Luke/Teddy looks innocently at him and says “Yes daddy. Can I go ask him now?” 

“Ask who, what now?” Eliot asks, as a greeting, coming to the kitchen, to get his breakfast. Luke/Teddy looks expectantly at his dad as if asking him for permission. Will/Quentin nods and Luke/Teddy runs up to Eliot. 

“Mr Eliot, can I spend the day with you tomorrow? We can do all the fun things!” Luke/Teddy says, looking at Eliot with his puppy dog eyes. Eliot is amazed again of how much Will and Luke remind him of Quentin and Teddy. In fact, when he’s come down and has seen them, he’s seen again, that flash, that superposed image of them at the mosaic. Then Luke/Teddy tugs his pant leg and the flash is gone. 

Eliot stares at Will/Quentin, who smiles at him and explains “Kady, I think that’s her name, the girl with the dark hair” 

“Except for Alice, all the girls have dark hair here” Eliot raises an eyebrow at Will/Quentin 

“Oh, you know, the tall one, who’s a bit scary” Will/Quentin says. 

Eliot laughs “She’s a bit scary, I’ll give you that. But Margo’s scarier, my fierce warrior king. What about Kady?”

“She asked me if I could get for Luke to help with the worm problem,” Quentin tells Eliot. 

Eliot feels oddly protective about Luke “No way! Please, tell me you didn’t agree with that plan!”

“Of course not! What kind of dad would I be?” Will/Quentin is glad Eliot feels protective about Luke/Teddy. “I said I’d help her instead. But I don’t want to bring Luke to wherever we might go, so I was thinking …” “Daddy!” Luke/Teddy reminds him. “We were thinking, maybe you could take care of Luke” Eliot stares at Will/Quentin and then at Luke/Teddy, who’s staring at him, nodding and smiling. Eliot looks back at Will/Quentin and agrees “Yes, I’ll take care of the munchkin. When and for how long?” 

“Oh, tomorrow and a few hours, I guess?” Will/Quentin has no idea of how much time the worm thing will take. “Maybe the whole day. Would you be ok with that?”

“Yeah, sure. What do you usually do, on a normal day?” Eliot asks. While Luke/Teddy and Will/Quentin have been living with them for a couple of weeks, they normally keep to themselves, most of the time. Will/Quentin thinks for a few seconds. 

“Um, let me see. We wake up around 8.00, but it depends on the day. We have breakfast and get ready. If I’m not helping Alice, or Julia, or Margo, or anyone, we walk the dog. We usually go to the park and spend there an hour, maybe an hour and a half. We come back and we study. I’m teaching him maths, some history, and geography, some sciences and we practice his reading and writing”   
es  
Luke/Teddy sticks his tongue out at his dad when he hears that. He doesn’t like studying, but daddy tries to make it fun, so it’s not too bad. And Luke/Teddy thinks that if he uses the weepy eyes on Mr. Eliot, maybe he can have a free day of not studying. 

Eliot nods and hums at Will/Quentin’s explanation and makes a gesture to ask him to continue.

“Ok, after studying, we have lunch. We usually have some sort of veggies, that Luke/Teddy must eat” Again, Luke/Teddy makes an ew face, green things! He likes some green things, he loves carrots, he likes to pretend he’s a rabbit. But he absolutely hates those leafy veggies his dad says will make him strong. He thinks again, maybe he can convince Mr. Eliot not to give him any of those green thingies. 

Will/Quentin finishes telling Eliot about their daily routine. Then Eliot looks at Luke/Teddy, who’s finishing his cereals. “What do you say kiddo, you want to spend the day with me tomorrow?” Eliot asks Luke/Teddy. Luke/Teddy raises his fist “Yay! Mr. Eliot, do you want to come with us today? We’re going to see the place with the big plushie animals!” 

Eliot gives Will/Quentin a confused look. Will/Quentin laughs “We’re going to the Natural History Museum” Oh, Eliot gets it. He laughs too. “What have you planned after that?” 

“Oh, well, maybe going to Times Square or Union Square. There are a couple of shops we want to visit, like the Lego shop” Will/Quentin adds. “I also need to buy some clothes for Luke” 

“Great! I’d love to go. Plus, shopping for clothes is like one of my expertise, so I’d be happy to help” Eliot plans to use the day to get a better feel on Will and Luke. And if he can flirt with him a little, that’s a win-win for him. 

“Are you sure you want to spend the day with us? I mean, if you have something else to do, I wouldn’t want to keep you from it!” Will/Quentin is nervous about spending a whole day with Eliot. 

Eliot pats Will/Quentin’s shoulder. “Sure, no problem. When are we leaving? I want to leave a note to Margo and Julia, in case they wonder where I am” 

“How about 9.30? Museum opens up at 10, we already have our tickets, but we can buy one for you now?” Will/Quentin suggests. 

“Don’t worry K …Will” Eliot corrects himself. “I’ll buy a ticket now. 9.30 is fine by me. We meet here and we go together?” 

Will/Quentin nods in agreement. He’s noticed Eliot’s faux pas, maybe he’s close to overcoming the god’s glamour? 

Will/Quentin, Luke/Teddy, and Eliot spend the day together. During the day, Eliot feels drawn to them and he gets more flashes of Q and Teddy, but they don’t last long. He learns that Will is a bit of a nerd, it reminds him of Q, of how he’d ramble about things he was passionate about. The fact that he’s very cute doesn’t hurt either. Luke is a lot like Teddy. He gets cranky when he’s tired, he’s curious about everything, asking a million questions and he’s very affectionate, once he trusts the person, he’s with. 

Eliot has fun with them, more fun than he’s had in a long time. It’s nice to spend a whole day without having to worry about the end of the world, or Fillory, or the hedges. And being with them lessens the pain a bit, though he still misses Q like crazy. 

The following day, while Eliot remains with Luke/Teddy, Will/Quentin and Kady leave together, to take care of the worm problem. They get to Fuzzbeats headquarters, which is the most neutral location. A couple of rooms have been set up, to function as a waiting room and an examination room. When they get there, the waiting room is already quite full. Harriet greets them, accompanied by her second in command. They chat for a moment and Will/Quentin gets to work. He calls the first person and asks him to lie on the couch. Will/Quentin approaches the hedge. He’s nervous, so Will/Quentin tries to calm him:

“Hi, what’s your name?” 

“My name is Phillip” The hedge’s fidgeting, his legs shaking and he’s pawing at the sweater he’s wearing. 

“Ok, Phillip. I need you to calm down, ok? Take a deep breath, and let it go” Will/Quentin tries to guide the hedge through some breathing exercises. Kady and Harriet are in the room too, in a corner, observing everything and speaking in hushed tones. Will/Quentin blocks them out. After a few moments, Phillip manages to calm down a little. Will/Quentin explains what he’s going to do: 

“Ok, Phillip. First, I’m going to do a diagnosis, see where the worm is located in your body. Then, I’m going to try coaxing out of your body, very gently. If you feel any discomfort, please, don’t hesitate in telling me, ok?”

Phillip nods and closes his eyes. Will/Quentin gets to work. He lets go of his wards, letting his god-power flow freely. With his hands hovering over Phillip’s body, he scans it, to see where the worm is. He finds the worm in the hypothalamus. He asks Kady and Harriet: 

“When you first scanned the hedges, did you find where the worms were located?” 

Harriet signs and Kady translates: “We used all the scanning tools we have but we couldn’t find them. The only thing we know is that they’re somewhere in the head, as the worms are introduced by the ear. Other than that, nothing. We even tried muggle machines, magically enhanced, like MRIs or CT scans, but we didn’t find anything. Not even at Brakebills”

“You were not wrong. The worm is in the brain, in the hypothalamus. My guess is that when the infected hedge tries to use his or her magic, the worm bites onto the hypothalamus, which causes the temperature spikes. I’m going to see if I can coax it out”

“Could it be removed with surgery, magical surgery?” Harriet asks. 

“I’m afraid not. The hypothalamus is a pretty difficult area to access and the worm has really latched on to the gland. It’s biting it, and it’s twisted around the gland” Will/Quentin says. 

“How are you going to get it out?” Kady asks. 

“I’m going to give it magic. It’s what it wants. I’m going to offer a better source” Will/Quentin explains while getting to work. He starts calling the worm, offering the worm a new home and magic, more magic than what it can eat. The worm resists, biting the gland harder. Phillip screams. He feels the worm in his head, how it moves and that it wants to stay. It hurts and he starts hyperventilating, asking Will/Quentin to stop. Will/Quentin stops. If he continues, he’s going to give the poor hedge a brain hemorrhage or worse. Before he continues, he tells Phillip: 

“Hey, I’m going to try one more time, but I’m going to put you under, ok? It’ll be like having general anesthesia. You’ll go to sleep and when you wake up, hopefully, the worm will be gone. Do you agree?”  
Phillip nods. Before he lets Will/Quentin put him under, he grabs Will/Quentin’s arm and tells him: “If it doesn’t work and something goes wrong, please, let me go. I don’t want to live with that thing in my head. Talk to my coven too, they’ll understand, and they’ll contact my family”

Will/Quentin nods in agreement, though he’s going to try to keep the guy alive. He puts Phillip under, and he gets to work again. He calls the worm again, trying to coax it out. It’s difficult, the worm doesn’t want to leave. It seems it has been programmed to resist extraction. However, Will/Quentin is not the god of magic for nothing. Even if he’s a fairly new god. So, little by little, Will/Quentin manages to get it to stop biting the hypothalamus. Once it has released the gland, it’s easier to call it out. He doesn’t know how much time has passed. He checks on Phillip, who’s still asleep, with no signs of distress, just an occasional twitch. The trickiest part is to find a passage for the worm to get out that won’t damage Phillip’s organs. The ear and the nose seem the best options. He directs the worm through the ear canal, taking care of not damaging the little bones and the eardrum. Finally, after what seems hours, a black shape starts coming out of Phillip’s ear. Will/Quentin cups the worm in his hands and creates a magic sphere where he puts the worm. It remains floating next to him. He does one last and thorough check, just in case the worm had been programmed to reproduce and there are eggs or baby worms somewhere. There’s nothing. Will/Quentin breathes a sigh of relief. At least Everett didn’t think of that, thank the gods! He lets Phillip sleep and he casts a spell, so he’ll wake up in a couple of hours. 

While Will/Quentin has been working, Kady and Harriet have been attentively staring at what he does. At some point, Harriet has taken out some crystals she used for diagnosis, or to check wards and she has used them to see what Will/Quentin is doing. She sees some sort of aura around him, not just his powers as a magician, something else, which is much more powerful, but she can’t pinpoint what it is. She should ask her mother, maybe there’s something in the Library, now that she has access to it. She tells Kady what she has seen, which prompts Kady to check Will/Quentin out. When Kady sees what Harriet has seen, she whistles softly. This is something she must discuss with the rest of the group. She sends them a message, telling them and that they’ll talk about it when they get home. 

Will/Quentin gets up, rubs his hands and says “It’s done, the worm’s out. But I don’t think I’ll be able to do another today, so maybe we can set another date?” he asks both leaders. 

Kady and Harriet nod. “Don’t worry. It’s the first sign of progress we’ve had since this crisis started. Maybe you can show and teach us what you did, and we’ll be able to do it on our own” Kady suggests.

She’s relieved they’ve found a solution. The magic sphere where Will/Quentin has put the worm is still floating around him. “What are you going to do with it? Can it be destroyed? We don’t want them lying around, they could infect hedges again, or even magicians”

Will/Quentin cups the sphere in his hands. Now that he looks closely at the worm, it looks more like a caterpillar. “I want to study it, see if it grows” He brings the sphere closer to Kady and Harriet, so they can take a good look at the worm. “See how it resembles a caterpillar? I want to know if it’d turn into a butterfly and what it feeds on, other than magic. Don’t worry, the sphere is safe, it won’t be able to get out unless I allow it” Will/Quentin assures them. 

“Good. Harriet, text me when it’s convenient to set up another session, for Will to work. Will, I’m sorry, but I need to go to the apartment now” Will/Quentin understands. Kady wants to speak to the others, tell them what she has seen with Harriet’s crystals. “It’s ok, I’m going to stay until Phillip wakes up. If I’m feeling a bit rested, I might try to remove the worm from another person, but just one. Would you mind telling the people waiting in the other room, to come another day?” He’d like to help them all, but even if he’s a god, there are still some limits to his powers and removing the worm has been quite taxing. 

Kady and Harriet smile at him and Kady leaves, while Harriet tells the people in the waiting room, to come another day. There are some protests but learning that a worm has been successfully removed gives the hedges some hope. Will/Quentin sits on the sofa, checking Phillip and just rests. 

Kady arrives at the apartment. Everybody else is there, including Eliot, who has returned from the park, with Luke/Teddy. Since Luke/Teddy is knackered, Eliot takes him into their room and puts him to sleep. Then he joins the rest, who are in the living room. Kady tells them about what Harriet has told her about Will/Quentin and what she has seen. The others agree that they should check on Will/Quentin and maybe Luke/Teddy too, as they’re father and son. Eliot is the one who’s more reluctant, but in the end, he agrees. They also make plans for the six-month anniversary of Quentin’s death, which is in a few days. Ever since, they go to his grave, leave flowers, tell him about their adventures and then return home, where they have drinks in Q’s memory. 

In Fuzzbeat's headquarters, Phillip wakes up. Will/Quentin checks him one last time, making sure there are no internal injuries, nor any residues left by the worm. He asks Phillip to cast a small spell, just to make sure. Phillip’s magic works just fine. They high five and Will/Quentin tells Harriet the good news. He’s a bit tired, but he can try to remove another worm, now that he knows where they are and what they look like. Harriet calls another hedge and Will/Quentin repeats the process again. It’s easier this time, but it still takes a few hours, so it’s already dark when he gets into the apartment. Eliot is awake and he greets Will/Quentin. 

“Hello Will. Kady told us you removed a worm successfully” 

Will/Quentin grunts, he’s about to fall asleep. “Sorry, I managed to remove another and I’m dead on my feet. How was Luke, by the way? Did he tire you?” He asks Eliot. 

“No, we had fun. He’s a great kid and you’re a good dad. I wouldn’t mind taking care of him another day if you need me to” Eliot offers. 

Will/Quentin yawns. “I might take you on that offer more. He’s in bed?” 

“Yes. We had dinner, I helped him with his bath, and I put him to bed. He wanted to wait until you were back, but the poor guy fell asleep. We read a bed-time story. I’m afraid I didn’t live up to his expectations, as a voice actor” Eliot tells Will/Quentin. 

Will/Quentin laughs “That might be my fault. I started doing the voices of all the characters, so he’s gotten used to it. Don’t worry, I’m sure he’d be thrilled if you told him another story, he’d even tell you how to do the voices” He staggers a little and Eliot grabs him by the arm. They stare at each other for a few seconds. They remain silent, staring at each other. Will/Quentin has missed Eliot's eyes, that depending on how the light shines on them, they’re green, or grey, or brown and usually framed by eyeliner. Eliot stares at Will/Quentin’s brown eyes, framed by thick eyebrows, remembering another pair of brown eyes. He gets another flash again, of Quentin staring at him, like at the mosaic, or the throne room, that day he’s come to hate. They come closer, Eliot lightly grabbing Will/Quentin by the shoulder. The flash gets stronger, the image of Q superposing on Will/Quentin. They’re about to kiss, when …

“Daddy …” Luke/Teddy is up, rubbing at his eyes, hair all messed up. 

The moment breaks, and the flash passes. Eliot lets go of Will/Quentin’s shoulder, who turns to look at his son. 

“Hello, buddy. Did you have a nightmare?” Will/Quentin says, as he goes towards his son and picks him up. “You want to sleep in daddy’s bed?” Luke/Teddy nods. “Ok, say good night to Mr. Eliot”. 

Luke/Teddy waves at Eliot “Good night Mr. El”

“Good night, Luke, Will,” Eliot says. 

“Good night Eliot” Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy go to their room. Eliot stays in the kitchen. He touches his lips, thinking about the almost kiss. He gets a glass of water and goes to bed, but he spends the night thinking about that moment with Will. 

The following days are a bit awkward between Will/Quentin and Eliot. It’s quite convenient that Julia asks for Will/Quentin’s help and that Eliot stays taking care of Luke/Teddy, this time, Margo joining them. 

Fogg has called them. He’s found a couple of books that might explain the surges, something to do with the old gods. Julia and Will/Quentin go to Brakebills. Since Julia was a goddess, even if it was for like 5 minutes and Will/Quentin is the closest thing they have to a master Magician, it was decided that they should go. 

Fogg greets them on the campus. He’s leading them towards the library, when Will/Quentin stops, looks around and travels out of their sight. Fogg and Julia remain there, not knowing what to do, until they hear some commotion, coming from one of the classrooms. The run there. When they get there, they see Will/Quentin, who has set two protective shields, one around most of the students and the teacher of the class and the other around a student who’s shaking, as if he were having a seizure. Will/Quentin opens the shield protecting most of the students and lets them go. Fogg asks the teacher what happened. The teacher explains that the student who Will/Quentin’s protecting was practicing a spell when a surge spiked. 

Fogg and Julia observe how Will/Quentin lowers the shield around the student, just enough to let the excess magic go. The surge explodes, breaking several windows and beakers and other objects in the class, but the student affected by it remains unharmed. This surge has been a mild one. Fogg takes one of his magnifying crystals, to see the shield Will/Quentin is using. It’s something no one has ever seen. Julia asks for the crystal. What she sees reminds her of some of the god’s magic, but it can’t be. The gods have been conveniently absent, no matter how many summoning’s have been done. 

Will/Quentin feels the excess magic of the surge join the ambient magic. It crackles with a strange energy. It looks for sources to channel itself, but human bodies are too weak, that’s why people lose limbs or even die when they get hit by a surge. He’s absorbed some of that excess magic, channeling it into the shield, making it stronger. He feels that soon, he’ll be able to absorb more, as his powers grow. He turns around and sees Julia staring at him. Oh, it’s the first time she’s seen him block one of the surges. “How did you do that?” She asks him. 

“What, the shield or absorbing the magic?” Will Quentin asks in return. 

“Wait, you can absorb the magic?” She inquires. 

“Uh, yeah. Some of it at least, which I used to channel the shield. The rest returns to the ambient magic” Will/Quentin explains. He recognizes that face in Julia. It’s the face she has when she’s trying to solve a mystery when she’s trying to figure out a new spell. Once she’s found a piece of the puzzle, she won’t let go until she solves it. Will/Quentin guesses that’s a thing of having meta-composition as your discipline. 

“Can you show me what you did and how you did it?” Julia asks. Will/Quentin hesitates, going beet red. How is he going to tell her that it’s instinctive? That he hasn’t used any spells or tuts, that it’s just his powers? He feels uncomfortable, lying to his best friend, and stutters, trying to get a good excuse. Julia, mistaking his discomfort with shyness, suggests: 

“Fogg has set a room for us to use, in the library, for us to check out the books. Why don’t we go there, and you can show me?”

They go to the room. Fogg has left a stack of books, on a table and Will/Quentin takes a couple. He sits on one of the armchairs and starts reading, ignoring Julia. Maybe that way, she’ll forget about him showing the spells. Julia takes some books too and sits on the other armchair. She starts reading while glancing every few minutes at Will/Quentin. He’s concentrated, biting his bottom lip and running his hand through his hair, messing it up. She suddenly gets a flash, and she sees Quentin reading, totally concentrated like he used to when they were little. She blinks, and the flash is gone. She shakes her head. The proximity of the anniversary of Q’s death must be affecting her more than she thought. Not that she’s not affected, but it’s been a while since she’s had flashes about Q. She continues reading. Will/Quentin has changed positions and instead of sitting cross-legged, now he’s sitting on one leg, while he taps the floor with his other foot. It reminds her of Q again, how he’d sit anyhow, sometimes in the most uncomfortable positions. He’s humming quietly, some song she doesn’t recognize. He gets up, startling her. 

“I think I’ve got something,” Will/Quentin says. He’s been reading a book in archaic Greek. “It talks about the flow of magic and how the gods control it. But my Greek isn’t very good” he lies through his teeth “Here, take a look” He passes the book to Julia. She reads the passage Will/Quentin has been talking about. 

“Holy shit!” Will/Quentin looks expectantly at her. He knows what the book says, it’s pretty much what the gods told him about interrupting and controlling the flow of magic. But he wants Julia to have that discovery. He smiles encouragingly. Julia smiles back “K, Will! It says that the gods control the flow. They can stop it completely or they can let it run freely. But they advise against controlling the flow. If something tampers the flow, it causes an imbalance in the sources of magic. When what’s tampering the flow is removed, the magic that has been restricted flows freely and without control! Fuck! This explains why the surges are happening! When the Library used that siphon, they disrupted the normal flow! And now that the siphon has been removed, the flow it’s too strong!” Julia is giddy for a second. They have the cause of the surges. But reading the excerpt further, she doesn’t see anything that might explain how to stop the surges or why they keep getting stronger. She sits down, looking deflated. 

Will/Quentin tries to cheer her up. “Well, at least we’ve discovered what’s causing the surges. We can go from there, do more research…” He suggests. 

Julia gets a determined look on her face. “The old gods! They control the flow. Maybe we could summon one of them and they can tell us how to stop the surges!” Now she’s got another reason for doing a summoning. 

“Didn’t you say that the gods were ignoring all summoning?” Will/Quentin asks. He’s noticed Julia’s faux pass with his name. Could it be she’s overcoming the god’s spell? 

“We’ll have to do something crazy enough to call their attention. Will, let's go back to the apartment, we have to tell the others what we’ve found” Julia starts leaving the room. 

Ok, what about the books? Can we take them? Do we leave them here?” Will/Quentin asks. 

“Fogg didn’t say we couldn’t get them out of campus, so can you send them to the apartment?” She winks at him. 

Will/Quentin smiles. He’s missed that mischievous part of Julia. He does a quick spell and the books are sent to the apartment. When they get there, Alice and Kady are not there yet, they have been most of the day in the Library. But they tell Penny, Eliot, and Margo that they’ve found something. 

When Kady and Alice return, Julia and Will/Quentin tell them what they’ve found. Alice looks embarrassed. She was the one who allowed the Library to put a siphon, something that Margo doesn’t hesitate to use against her. Kady too. A fight breaks out, between Alice and Kady and Margo. Eliot and Penny try to calm things down because the fight can get ugly anytime. Julia gets in too, not really taking Alice’s side, but defending her, which angers Kady more. When it seems that a full fight is going to start, with battle magic flying all over the place, Luke/Teddy, who’s been taking his afternoon nap, comes rubbing his eyes and holding a plushie toy. 

“Mr. Eliot is my daddy back?” he asks, his voice sleep. Everyone stops yelling. “Hello, buddy. Did we wake you?” Will/Quentin says as a greeting. “Daddy!” Luke/Teddy runs up to him and jumps, so Will/Quentin takes him in his arms. “Uff, soon you’ll be too big for me to catch you like that!” Will/Quentin nuzzles his son, making him laugh. “Come on, let's go take Balto for a walk” He suggests. Luke/Teddy agrees. They take the puppy and travel out of the apartment. 

With Luke/Teddy’s interruption, the fight is forgotten. Now that they’ve calmed down a little, Julia explains what they’ve found, what Will/Quentin has done when a surge appeared and what she’s seen when she was watching Will/Quentin's work, which matches what Kady’s told them. They plan what they’re going to do. Since Eliot has gotten close to Will/Quentin, he’s going to try to get some intel on him, something Eliot is not too comfortable with. Julia, whos’ not as close, but the second closest, is going to use the research to do the same, while she prepares the items for a summoning ritual. Alice, Kady are going to search in the Library, for books on the flow of magic. Most likely, they’re in the poison room. Penny and Margo are going to travel to Fillory. They’re going to search among Plover things and the books Martin Chatwin brought, when he was the Beast, to see if there’s anything there. They’re also checking the library in Whitespire. Since the anniversary of Q’s death is in two days, they’re also going to bring back Josh and Fen, so they can be at the memorial. 

The following two days are a little tense. Emotions are skin deep, after the fight and with the anniversary coming up. Eliot spends most of the time with Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy. He doesn’t use that time to spy on them, he just enjoys their company. Fen and Josh come from Fillory and meet the new additions to the gang, but they’re more accepting. Fen is as sweet as always and Josh is laid-back, plus having a kid in the house, allows him to try new dishes that are kid-friendly, which Luke/Teddy loves, like cotton candy that changes color and flavor, or veggie flavored muffins, a great way to get Luke/Teddy to eat his greens. 

The day of the anniversary starts gloomy, with a forecast of rains, but it’s supposed to clear up later. The plan is to have lunch and go to the cemetery in New Jersey. Even if there wasn’t a body to bury, they decided to have a grave, put next to Q’s dad’s grave. Julia organized it, with the help of Q’s mother. 

The morning passes slowly and then it’s time for them to go. They gather the flower bouquets and the bottles of wine. Penny doesn’t want to travel with that many people, so they ask Will/Quentin if he can travel some of them. Will/Quentin agrees. It’s a bit morbid, to visit his own grave, but since it’s next to his dad’s, he can bring some flowers to his dad. It’ll be the first time since his dad died, that he’s been able to visit his grave. And it’ll give Luke/Teddy the chance of visiting his grandpa and honoring his mom too. 

The group splits in two. Alice, Kady, Margo, and Fen travel with Penny. That leaves Julia, Eliot, and Josh, to travel with Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy. Just as she did, when she showed him the location of the apartment, Julia allows Will/Quentin to read her mind, so he can get the location. They travel and they appear in the cemetery. Julia and Alice are carrying the flowers, which they deposit at his grave. He and Luke/Teddy get a bit closer. The headstone is engraved. It has his full name and his date of birth and of death. Under it, it says “beloved son and friend”. Pretty generic, Will/Quentin thinks. But he feels the magic around it. He casts a quick spell and he sees the real message: “friend, lover, father, quester. Saved the world, saved magic”. He tears up and chuckles. He wonders who had the idea for the engraving and the Buffy the Vampire slayer reference. He and Luke/Teddy move away from the group. They want to give them privacy. 

They see how the group makes a circle around the gravestones. Julia and Alice set the flower bouquets and Margo and Eliot open a couple of wine bottles. Each one says something but Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy are too far away to hear it. Will/Quentin guesses he could use some of his god powers to hear them, but he doesn’t get to intrude. 

After a while, it seems they’re finished. One by one, they pat his gravestone. Eliot and Julia kiss their hands before they touch the stone. They’re the last ones to move away. They come up to them, ready to travel. But Will/Quentin needs to do something and tells them: 

“Would you mind going ahead? I need to do something” They look at him strangely. What could he possibly have to do? He doesn’t know Q, nor Ted. But he has a pleading look and they decide it’s not the moment to ask questions. They travel back to the apartment, leaving Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy. 

Will/Quentin and Luke/Teddy approach the graves. Will/Quentin produces a bouquet of flowers, that he leaves at his father’s grave. He grabs Luke/Teddy’s hand. He pats the headstone. “Hello, dad. It’s Q and Teddy. I know we talked in the Underworld, but it’s the first time since you died, that I’ve been here. I know I already said it, but I’m so sorry for not being there when you died. For being selfish and putting magic above all. I’m sorry for not being a better son, for making you worry about me” He starts crying. Luke/Teddy hugs his leg and he feels some comfort. “I’ve regretted many things about my life, one of them being the pain I’ve caused you. I also wanted to thank you, for being my dad. I know I wasn’t the easiest kid to be around with, but you’ve always loved me unconditionally and that’s what I want to do for my son. When I was raising Teddy, you were my role model and now that I have that chance again, I’ll continue to do so. I love you; dad and I miss you. Take care of Ari, too. I’m really glad you were able to meet her” 

He crouches down and asks Luke/Teddy: “Do you want to say something to Grandpa?” Luke/Teddy nods. 

“Hello, Grandpa. I miss you. New York is big and I love ice-creams and hot dogs. Daddy and I are happy, but we miss you and mama a lot. And papa. Daddy says that papa is going to remember us soon. If he doesn’t, I’m going to kick him in the butt! We have a doggy! His name is Balto and he plays with me and sleeps with me and kisses me! I love him! Grandpa, please take care of mama. I’m taking care of daddy too. I make him eat his green thingies and all” He says very seriously, which makes Will/Quentin laugh. Luke/Teddy pats the gravestone too. “Daddy, can we go visit mama?”

Will/Quentin chuckles a teary laugh. “Yes, Teddy. When papa remembers us, we’ll go to Fillory and visit mama, ok?” Luke/Teddy nods, pats the gravestone one last time and says: “I’m ready to go, daddy”. 

“One moment” Will/Quentin tells his son. He takes one last look at his grave. Holy shit! He’s died and come back to life. The reality of that falls on him like a dead weight. When he was at his funeral, with the bonfire, he wasn’t entirely conscious about it. He was in shock and yes, he understood that he’d died, but seeing his gravestone, seeing his friends grieving him after he’d died, really makes him realize the incredible second chance he’s been given. He thanks the gods. Now he gets the chance of raising his son again, being with his friends and maybe, having a relationship, a serious one, with the man he loves. He pats his dad’s gravestone one last time; grabs his son’s hand and travel back to the apartment. 

In the apartment, some are sitting on the sofas and some are in the kitchen. Eliot, Josh, and Margo are in the kitchen. Josh is preparing something to eat, while Margo and Eliot prepare drinks. The others are sitting in the couches of the living room when Will/Quentin and Luke/teddy appear. Luke/Teddy rushes to the bathroom. Will/Quentin remains in the middle of the room, halfway between the kitchen and the living room. Julia greets him and asks him to join them. Eliot offers him a glass of wine. Before he can take it, Luke/Teddy comes running. He’s holding one of the spheres that contain one of the worms. 

“Daddy, daddy, daddy! Look! The worm has created a house and it’s in it” Will/Quentin kneels, and takes the sphere. Indeed, the worm has created a cocoon, just like butterflies do. 

“Do you know what that means? In a few days or weeks, he’s going to come out, as a butterfly” Will/Quentin explains. Luke/Teddy is awed. “When is it getting out? Will it be a big butterfly or a small one? Will it talk? Can I give him a name?” he asks, making the others laugh. Will/Quentin ruffles his son’s hair, which Luke/Teddy doesn’t like. “Daad!” He protests. 

Eliot finds himself staring fondly at them again. He gets the flashes again, of the timeline that never was, of Teddy running up to Q, with something he had discovered earlier, of Q doing magic tricks, like making leaves float around Teddy, so he could chase them. This time, instead of checking if any of the others see what he’s seeing, he lets the flashes continue, until they start to blur into Will and Luke. For a moment, both images superimpose, until it clears up and … Oh shit. It’s Q and Teddy he’s seeing. He drops the glass of wine he’s holding, splashing Margo, who complains. Eliot looks around, to see if the others can see Q and Teddy too. It seems only he can. 

With a couple of quick steps, and apologizing to Margo about the wine, he approaches Q, grabs him by the arm and drags him out of the living room, while asking Julia to watch out Luke/Teddy for a few minutes. 

Q and Teddy’s room is the closest. He gets Q inside, closes the door and pushes Q against the door, putting both arms at the sides of Q’s head, blocking him. “Talk,” he says. 

Q stares at him with huge eyes, mouth slightly open. He starts saying something when Eliot lowers his head and kisses him. One of Eliot’s hand cups his head, while the other arm slides around his waist. Q stands on his toes and he wraps his arms around Eliot’s neck, while they kiss, tongues teasing and nipping at each other’s lips. It’s like coming home, like they should have never stopped doing this. It’s like falling into a familiar dance, in which you and your partner are perfectly coordinated and are able to anticipate the moves of the other before they happen. They kiss for what seems like an age. When they stop, they are still hugging each other, foreheads touching and their mouths so close that they share each other’s breath. The room is silent as if they’re afraid of breaking the spell and that everything will be an illusion. Eliot takes a ragged breath and breaks the silence: 

“Holy shit Q!” He says as he hugs Q tightly. They separate a little, but they don’t let go of each other. “How?” Eliot asks. Q cups Eliot’s face tenderly and says “There’s so much I have to tell you, but first, there’s a certain someone who’s dying to say hello to you” 

Eliot nods, there’s a knot in his throat. Q is back! He’s alive and somehow Teddy is with him! He sits on Q’s bed, while Q goes to get Teddy. He gets nervous. It’s been such a long time! The door opens and Teddy rushes in. Quentin quickly sets silencing wards. “Papa!” Teddy throws himself at Eliot, who catches him. 

“Papa I missed you!” Teddy hugs Eliot, who starts feeling tears running down his face. From the door, Quentin is looking at them, a tender look on his face, while he’s crying too. Eliot hugs Teddy and beckons Quentin to come to them. Quentin sits on the bed and Eliot puts one of his arms around Q, while he holds Teddy with the other. His family, he has his family back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two things. For the kiss between Eliot and Q, I've taken my inspiration from fics that, in my opinion, have some of the best kiss scenes, but it's never been my intention to copy them and I've tried to make my version. I apologize in advance if anyone feels that, especially to those writers.   
> The second thing, about the identity of the Dark King, how many of us were thinking that he'd be a descendant of Q and Eliot, from the timeline at the mosaic?   
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


End file.
